After being acquitted of corruption charges, Mubarak-era finance minister appointed as member of Specialized Council for Economic Development

CAIRO – 26 September 2024: A presidential decree appointed Mubarak-era finance minister Youssef Boutros Ghali to be a member of the Specialized Council for Economic Development, affiliated with the Presidency, after being acquitted of corruption charges.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi issued a decree to reconstitute the Specialized Council for Economic Development, which was formed in 2015. Appointing Ghali was translated by several media outlets as vital due to the ongoing economic crisis that Egypt is going through.

In July 2023, 2023, a Cairo court has Ghali from charges in the case known in media as the “customs corruption” case.

In 2011, he was sentenced, in absentia, to 15 years in prison over squandering public money by using cars held in customs.At the time, the court also ordered dismissing Ghali from his job as the finance minister and obliging him to return LE 35.79 million, the cost of the cars he allegedly took from customs without their owners’ permission. The court also fined him another LE 35.79 million.

In the case, the Public Prosecution charged Ghali with issuing the ministerial decree no. 165 of 2005, by which he allegedly used 102 cars seized in the customs with a value of LE 35.79 million.

In 2022, a Cairo court acquitted Ghali of charges in another case known in media as the “German license plates deal case.” This came a year after he was handed a 10-year-prison sentence in absentia in the case.

In the latter case, Ghali was charged with squandering public funds.

Ghali fled Egypt in 2011 and lives currently in the United Kingdom.

About the Specialized Council for Economic Development

-       It was formed by president Sisi in 2015, a year after he assumed the presidency.

-       It tasked with studying and proposing the general economic and production policies of the country in all fields.

-       It would support and develop production capacity.

-       It studies available resources using scientific and technological methods.

-       It studies ways to eliminate any obstacles that affect the economic growth process.

-       It provides studies on foreign markets and the possibilities of expanding the export of Egyptian products to them.