CAIRO- Prosecutors have extended the jailing of a senior official at the Ministry of Culture for 15 more days pending further investigations in connection with the theft of a painting from a Cairo museum, legal sources said on Wednesday. The extended jailing came a day after Egypt's Prosecutor General Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud Monday referred Mohssen Shaalan, the First Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Head of Sector of Fine Arts, together with 10 other defendants, to the Criminal Court to be tried over the theft of van Gogh's painting 'Poppy Flowers' from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Giza last month. The trial will start on September 14. Shaalan and a number of museum officials said they had asked the Culture Minister for nearly $7 million to upgrade security systems, including at the Mahmoud Khalil Museum, but that only $88,000 was approved. Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni had earlier defended his ministry in his testimony before the Prosecutor General. "I volunteered my statement so that I can defend my ministry against the accusationsit faces and against all the accusations Shaalan has filled the newspapers with," Hosni told reporters after meeting with prosecutors. According to a statement by Reem Baher, the Mahmoud Khalil Museum director, Hosni knew about the dysfunctional cameras and alarm system but said there was no budget for upgrading them.
