Egyptian information minister charged with wasting public funds

Egypt’s Public Prosecutor Hisham Barakat is set to prosecute Information Minister Dorreya Sharaf El-Din on charges of wasting public funds amounting to $2 million.

Sharaf El-Din was appointed as information minister after the coup that deposed Egypt’s first democratically elected government on 3 July. She is also the head of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, and previously was an active member of former President Hosni Mubarak’s now-dissolved National Democratic Party.

After she assumed her ministry post, Sharaf El-Din was widely quoted by international media justifying the security services’ violent crackdown against peaceful anti-coup protesters, including the massacres that took place in Rabaa and Al-Nahda Squares.

The case against her was filed after she gave permission to Egyptian state TV to broadcast the football match between Egypt and Ghana in the World Cup tournament, despite her knowledge that the broadcast rights were exclusive to Al-Jazeera Channel.

Sharaf El-Din’s breach of the licensing agreement resulted in the state having to pay a $2 million fine from the public treasury, during a time when Egypt’s economy is suffering.