Court sets February to retry Adly over embezzling public funds

CAIRO - 28 December 2018: Giza Criminal Court set on Thursday February 7 to retry Former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and a number of the top officials of the ministry over charges of embezzling public funds.

Adly and his co-defendants are charged with siphoning off over LE2 billion of public funds in the period between 2000 and 2011.

During the session, representative of the General Prosecution commented on Adly's advocacy's claim in the previous sessions that the ex-interior minister was unaware of the financial affairs, saying that it cannot be true. The representative said that Adly, as the number one official in the ministry who was responsible for the security of the ministry at the time, cannot be unaware of incidents taking place.

The Court of Cassation had earlier revoked a 7-year jail sentence against Adly and ordered retrial.The 7-year sentence was issued against Adly and two other defendants by the Cairo Criminal Court in April 2017. The court also sentenced six defendants to five years in prison, and two others to three-year imprisonment.

The court subsequently ordered compelling Adly and two defendants in the case to refund LE 195,936,000 ($10.9 million). Adly and nine defendants also had to refund 529,000,000 ($29.5 million), according to an earlier ruling of the court.