Retrial of Mubarak-era finance minister adjourned

International Monetary and Financial Committee (IFMC) chair and Egyptian Finance Minister Yussef Boutros Ghali speaks to the press after the IMFC meeting during the annual IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington on 9 October 2010. [NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images]

Egypt’s criminal court adjourned until 22 February the retrial of former Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali over corruption charges that date back to his time in office during the era of former President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in 2011 following a popular uprising.

In April 2013, Ghali was sentenced in absentia to life in prison; his lawyer later asked for a retrial.

Ghali is charged with squandering some 20 million Egyptian pounds (around $1.27 million) in public funds.

The former official fled to Britain after the 2011 popular uprising, during which Mubarak-era officials were accused of corruption that was believed to have contributed to high poverty rates and a wide income gap between the political and financial elite and civilians.

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