Egypt court fines ex-interior minister $29 equivalent for abuse of funds

CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Thursday fined ex-interior minister Habib Al Adly 500 Egyptian pounds ($29) after convicting him on charges of unintentional “abuse of public funds” through negligence, a judicial source said.

But the court sentenced Nabil Khalaf, the former head of the ministry’s Central Administration of Finances and Budget, to three years in jail, ordering him to pay back 62.1 million Egyptian pounds ($3.6 million) and fining him 61.1 million pounds.

A long-serving official at the apex of Egypt’s feared internal security apparatus, Adly served under former president Hosni Mubarak before his fall to a popular uprising in 2011.

The value of the fine raised eyebrows among some Egyptians on social media. “#Habib Al Adly a 500-pound fine, as if he was a laundry thief”, Sofia Ahmed wrote on her Twitter account.

Adly and two other ministry officials was ordered in April 2017 to refund a total of 195 million Egyptian pounds and were fined the same amount. But the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s top civil court, overturned the sentence in January 2018 over procedural errors and ordered a retrial.

Adly’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

The judicial source said that in its ruling on Thursday, the Giza criminal court cleared Adly of the more serious charge of embezzlement and illegal seizure of funds, but found him guilty of abuse of public funds through negligence.

The court also fined eight other ministry officials 500 Egyptian pounds each. 

Adly was acquitted of other graft charges in 2015.

In 2014, Adly, along with Mubarak and six of Mubarak’s aides, were acquitted of charges related to killing protesters during the 2011 uprising.