Illicit Gains Authority fights to retry Habib al-Adly on corruption charges

The Illicit Gains Authority has appealed the recent acquittal of former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly on a range of corruption charges, including squandering LE181 million in public funds, the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Tuesday.

The Giza Criminal Court acquitted Adly of the charges on March 19. The judge also overturned a freeze on his personal assets, and those of his family.

The former minister walked out of prison on March 25, as the court also ruled that the time he had spent in custody pending investigations into other charges counted as time served for the sentence he received in the “forced labor” case. Adly’s release prompted widespread outrage, as he was the last member of former President Hosni Mubarak’s regime to remain behind bars on corruption charges.

The Illicit Gains Authority filed an appeal against the acquittal with the Court of Cassation on the grounds that they had produced new evidence proving beyond the shadow of doubt that Adly committed several financial crimes. His acquittal was thus “legally flawed," according to the authority.

Adly’s first trial on corruption charges began in 2011 after Mubarak stepped down from power. The authority’s investigations showed that he had accumulated wealth that was over and above his reported income. Among other offences, the authority accused Adly of illegally acquiring state-owned lands in 6th of October City, in violation of legal restrictions on the possession of such lands by public officials. He used his position to accumulate illicit gains worth over LE6.5 million, the authority claimed.

Investigations suggested that Adly illegally purchased four properties for his children, for an illicit profit of LE29.2 million. 

He was also accused of procuring illicit gains worth LE84.4 million for himself, his wife and his children. The authority said this figure represented a sudden increase in Adly’s liquid wealth which could not have been acquired through legitimate channels.

An additional LE5 million was found hidden in an account under Adly’s name in a London branch of HSBC bank, the authority said, which had not been mentioned in any of his successive financial disclosures. 

Adly was previously cleared of similar corruption charges in the “license plates” case, in which he and former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif were accused of squandering LE97 million in public funds.

Adly also stood trial alongside Mubarak and six other Interior Ministry officials on charges of conspiring to kill protesters during the January 25, 2011 revolution. The charges were dropped for all the defendants, causing condemnation both locally and internationally.