Egypt’s Attorney General Abdel Magid Mahmoud has referred former Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali and former Information Minister Anas al-Fiqqi to trial before the Cairo Criminal Court on charges of intentionally damaging public funds.
Public Prosecution Spokesman Adel al-Saeed said that investigations had revealed that al-Fiqqi made a request for LE36 million from the Finance Ministry to spend on media coverage of the parliamentary and Shura Council elections.
Complaints had been submitted to the Attorney General accusing al-Fiqqi of spending the money on election campaigns for the former ruling National Democratic Party.
Al-Saeed went on to say that Boutros-Ghali agreed to allocate the requested amount to al-Fiqqi and that the money was taken from the Ministry’s financial reserves for strategic goods and services.
Al-Saeed explained that al-Fiqqi violated the legal provisions of both the parliamentary and presidential elections, which prohibit the use of public funds for electoral propaganda.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
