CAIRO: Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud referred ex-finance minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali to a criminal court over new corruption charges, the general prosecution said in a statement Saturday. The general prosecutor also requested Interpol to have him arrested since he fled the country in February before any charges were pressed against him. General prosecution spokesman Adel Saeid said in the statement published on Facebook that Ghali had been accused of deliberately inflicting damages to the interests of others who had no connection with the entity he worked for. Ghali was also charged with profiteering, Saeid added. On March 1, the general prosecution had received a complaint indicating that Ghali unlawfully benefited from six private luxury cars owned by citizens for personal use, the statement said. The cars were officially kept at the customs warehouses until their owners paid the due tariffs. Moreover, the investigation revealed that Ghali allocated 96 other cars reportedly worth LE 35.5 million, also owned by citizens, to other entities. Ghali did not seek the approval of the car owners, which violated the customs law dictating that these cars had to remain in their original shape until the owners claimed them. Ghali was also accused of using the printing center at the finance ministry for high quality prints to use in his election campaign for the People's Assembly (Lower House of the Parliament) as well as moving a number of the ministry's computers to the campaign headquarters six months before elections. Other corruption-related charges against him had to do with squandering LE 92 million of public funds pertaining to car registration plates in collaboration with former interior minister Habib El-Adly and ex-premier Ahmed Nazif, both held in custody pending trial.
