Oman court jails businessman to 15 years over bribes

A court in Oman on Sunday sentenced a former executive of an engineering firm to a total of 15 years in jail for five counts of bribery in exchange for contracts from a state-owned oil company. The trial, part of a crackdown by the government on corruption in the Western-allied country, was the second against former managing director of Galfar Engineering and Contracting, Mohammed Ali, who was sentenced to three years in jail in January over bribes made to Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).
Ali and two other men convicted earlier this year on bribery charges - a former executive of Galfar and a Finance Ministry official who had served as head of the tenders committee at PDO - have appealed against the January sentence.