CAIRO, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian police arrested former prime minister Hesham Qandil, who served under ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, to execute a previous court order that requires his imprisonment for one year, official news agency MENA reported Tuesday.

A statement from the Interior Ministry said that Qandil has been arrested at a mountainous road on his way to flee the country to Sudan, accompanied by a smuggler.

He was charged with failing to execute a court order to annul the privatization of Tanta's Linen Company and reinstate its employees. A court has sentenced him to one year in prison in April and the ruling was upheld in September.

The sentence against Qandil related to another court ruling in 2011 that demanded the government to repurchase Tanta Linen Company from an investor who bought it in 2005.