Egypt court acquits ex-interior minister of money laundering charges

text

An Egyptian court acquitted on Thursday former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly of money laundering and profiteering charges, official MENA news agency reported.

The detained ex-senior official still has to wait for retrial over responsibility for killing protesters in the 2011 upheaval that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.

Serving under Mubarak for more than 13 years, Adly was accused of corruption charges and laundering money worth 5 million Egyptian pounds (about 0.7 million U.S. dollars).

He was sentenced to a 12-year prison term on the same charges in May 2011, but the Court of Cassation overturned the ruling in last month, and ordered his retrial.

The court's decision comes only one day after a prominent activist of the 2011 revolt was sentenced to 15 years behind bars after being convicted of organizing an unauthorized protest and assaulting a policeman.

The sentence against Alaa Abdel-Fattah was the first conviction of activist since former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi took office as president on Sunday.

Al-Adly is still in custody along with Mubarak, as well as six of the former leader's top police aides for their retrials over killing protesters during the 2011 social upheaval.

Mubarak and Adly were first sentenced to 25 years in 2012 for killing more than 800 protesters. Later in early 2013, the Court of Cassation overturned the decision after accepting appeals from their lawyers and prosecution.

Mubarak and his two sons, Gamal and Alaa, are also facing retrial on corruption charges.

In December 2013, a court acquitted Gamal, Alaa and Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq of corruption charges related to the sale of state-owned land in 1995.

Last month, a criminal court convicted Mubarak and his two sons of embezzling millions of dollars of public funds during his rule for personal use. The court sentenced Mubarak to three years in prison while Gamal and Alaa were each sentenced to four years for their roles in the embezzlement scheme.

Later this week, Adly will face another retrial along with former prime minister Ahmed Nazif over corruption charges related to profiteering from awarding a government contract for supplying new car license plates without going through legal procedures.