Egyptian police nabs former premier Qandil

The Egyptian police has arrested Hisham Qandil, former prime minister under the government of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

On Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said Qandil was arrested around the capital Cairo along with a “smuggler attempting to escape to Sudan.”

Qandil, who served as Egypt’s prime minister in 2012 and 2013, has been sentenced to a year in prison for defying a court order to renationalize a company privatized in 1996.

Egypt has been experiencing unrelenting violence since Morsi, the first democratically-elected president, was ousted on July 3. Hundreds have lost their lives in the ensuing violence across the country.

About 1,000 people were killed in a week of violence between Morsi supporters and security forces after police dispersed their protest camps in a deadly operation on August 14.

The massacre sparked international condemnation and prompted world bodies to call for an independent investigation into the violence.