CAIRO: Former interior Minister Habib El-Adly, with two pending trials including for his involvement in killing protesters, is being investigated for another case of squandering public funds pertaining to vehicles registration plates. Former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif was detained for 15 days on Sunday pending investigations into squandering LE 92 million in public funds in collaboration with El-Adly and former Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali. Nazif and El-Adly denied the accusations. The former government officials are accused of importing number plates from a German company for LE 92 million more than the local market price for no justifiable reason and without holding a public tender. As a result, citizens were forced to pay for the overpriced number plates from the traffic authority which comes under the jurisdiction of the interior ministry. Essam El-Batawy, the lawyer representing El-Adly, told Daily News Egypt that the former interior minister denied the accusations in preliminary investigations. “El-Adly is an interior minister and it's not his responsibility to deal with public funds. That's the responsibility of the finance minister,” El-Batawy said. “Besides, he didn't even know the name of the German company and didn't receive one penny from the reported LE 92 million.” El-Batawy added that El-Adly testified that there were terrorist attacks in 2007 when the deal was struck and that the interior ministry needed the number plates changed as quickly as possible for security reasons. El-Adly is facing another trial slated for April 24 for premeditated murder of protesters, the attempted murder of others as well as inflicting major damages to public and private property which had a negative impact on the economy. Four of El-Adly's assistants were also arrested on the same charges: former head of Cairo security Ismail Al-Shair; former head of public security Ali Fayid, former head of State Security Forces Ahmed Ramzi, and the former head of the Cairo State Security Investigations Unit Hussein Abdel Rahman. El-Batawi said that El-Adly denied giving orders to shoot peaceful protesters, adding that that his assistants would not open fire on protesters without the consent of their superiors. However, Atteya Mohamed, a civil society lawyer, told DNE that the prosecution has the testimonies of El-Adly's assistants which incriminate him and prove that he directly ordered them to open fire on protesters. “We also have recordings of their telephone conversations during the revolution,” Mohamed added. A youth-led uprising in Egypt that started on Jan. 25 and continued for 18 days led to the ouster of then president Hosni Mubarak. Violent clashes between security forces and demonstrators during the first few days left more than 680 dead and over 6,000 injured, according to rights groups. El-Adly's alleged acts and orders to the police to withdraw from the streets caused a security vacuum, threatening citizens and endangering their lives and safety, since the night of Jan. 28, dubbed the “Friday of Anger” when the army was deployed. El-Adly claimed during interrogations that he was called upon by ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) leaders and businessmen to stir chaos in the country to distract protesters and force them to go home. He added that he received instructions from a prominent NDP leader to disperse the protesters at all costs. El-Adly is currently on trial for money laundering and unlawful acquisition of public funds. His case has been adjourned to May 5 when a verdict will be announced. El-Adly was charged with exploiting his position as a public servant to sell land to a contractor doing work for the interior ministry, in a deal worth LE 4.8 million, in addition to money laundering to the tune of LE 4.5 million. –Additional reporting by Marwa Al-A'sar
