CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian appeals court on Tuesday lowered a fine levied against an Egyptian steel tycoon and ally of former president Hosni Mubarak for monopolistic practices, judicial sources said.
Ahmed Ezz, the founder of Ezz Steel, Egypt's largest steel maker, must pay 10 million Egyptian pounds (0.89 million pounds) rather than 100 million pounds.
Judicial sources said the lower figure was the maximum legal penalty permitted when the case was raised in 2006, even though the law was later amended to allow for higher penalties.
Ezz, once a senior official in Mubarak's now disbanded political party, is being tried in a series of corruption cases against businessmen as prosecutors investigate figures closely associated with Mubarak.
He was jailed in 2011 three days after Mubarak stepped down, and was released in August this year after paying 11 million Egyptian pounds in fines in a separate case.
Ezz is also on trial in other corruption-related cases and could go back to jail if found guilty in those.
(Writing by Stephen Kalin; editing by Susan Thomas)