Sainsbury's boss Mike Coupe appeals against two-year jail sentence in Egypt for 'breaching trust'

Mr Coupe had spent last weekend in Giza appealing against the verdict

Sainsbury’s chief Mike Coupe only learned of his trial and sentencing in December (Getty Images)

Mike Coupe arrived at the top of Sainsbury last year as it faced falling sales and a rapacious price war triggered by Aldi and Lidl. But, according to an Egyptian court, in his second week in the job, he sneaked into Egypt to fraudulently seize some cheques from a local joint-venture partner that had gone bust many years before. In his absence, he was sentenced to two years in an Egyptian jail for “breaching trust”.

Details of the trial emerged as it transpired that Mr Coupe had spent last weekend in Giza appealing against the verdict.

He has a pretty solid alibi. He had rather more pressing corporate matters on his mind at the time, and on the day he was supposedly in the land of the Pharaohs grasping for the cheques, he was actually at Sainsbury’s HQ in London, meeting a journalist, his team of buyers and other executives.

But he didn’t get the chance to tell the judge that, because the Egyptian judiciary didn’t tell him that he was being tried. In fact, Sainsbury’s only learned of his trial and sentencing in December.

According to Amnesty International, Egypt’s justice system has a reputation for locking up Western journalists, sentencing children to death and, as in Mr Coupe’s case, trying people without their knowledge.

Despite that, Mr Coupe, a security detail and his legal team voluntarily travelled there last weekend. They were aided by British embassy officials, who are apparently furious at how such a bastion of the English establishment has been treated.

When asked why Sainsbury’s took the risk of sending its boss to a lawless country where he had been wrongly sentenced to jail, the company said it wanted to avoid him being extradited or put on the Interpol list. Not many countries these days have bilateral extradition treaties with Egypt – Syria, Palestine and Poland are among them – but being on an Interpol alert can cause problems at many passport control points.

In the event, his personal appearance paid off. It meant the appeal process has formally begun and he can now come and go as he pleases until it has run its course. A further hearing could take place this weekend, but the court process is extremely unpredictable.

The whole trial was instigated by Sainsbury’s bankrupt former business partner in the country, who has been launching attacks on the company ever since his firm went bust. Under Egyptian law, corporations cannot be tried, hence the prosecution of Mr Coupe in person.

Sainsbury’s hopes to prevail in the appeal process.