Former Minister of Interior Habib al-Adly had two trials postponed Tuesday, in which he is accused of illegally seizing money and taking advantage of his position as a minister in the regime of Hosni Mubarak.
The South Cairo Criminal Court adjourned to Sept. 28 the trial session for the case publicly known as the “license plates case,” in which he and his co-defendant, former prime minister Ahmed Nazif, are accused of illegally profiting from a deal with a German company with forged documents.
This is a re-trial as requested by the Court of Cassation which objected the original verdict of five years in prison for Adly, and one year for Nazif.
The Giza Criminal Court also postponed a Tuesday court hearing to Dec. 18, in Adly’s re-trial concerning the obtaining of illegal funds estimated at 181 million EGP ($25.3 million,) as reported against him by the Illicit Gains Authority, Youm7 reported.
Adly was able to make those profits by using his connections among high state officials and obtaining large and expensive pieces of lands mainly in 6 of October City, Al-Dostour reported Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the trial session of former minister of Information Anas el-Fekky will be held on Nov. 19 as decided by the Cairo Criminal Court Monday. Fekky is accused of public funds waste and corruption in the state TV building called Maspiro, along with the former head of news section Abdul Latif el-Minawy, ONA News Agency reported.
On a different note, former minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy is also being re-tried in the case of squandering public funds in gas exports to Israel; his next trial session is scheduled on Nov. 22, after previously being sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The series of trials for the Mubarak-era officials came Sept. 27, a few days before the final verdict was to be issued for the former president in the case of killing protesters during the January 25 Revolution. Mubarak had previously been declared innocent by a court in August 2013, as his lawyer Fareed el-Deeb pled for his defendant’s innocence in this new round of trials.
Activists, including April 6 Youth Movement condemned the “systematic release” or non-accountability of Mubarak-era officials. Some have even launched a campaign on Facebook titled “If Mubarak is declared innocent we will run naked to Tahrir.”
Some activists, skeptical of another not guilty verdict, have begun planning or considering protests to coincide with the timing of Mubarak’s final trial. “We still demand justice to be served, not only for the crimes committed against protesters during the revolution in 2011, but for 30 years of corruption,” Amr Badr, member of a revolutionary group called the January Current told Youm7 Sept. 17.
