On 6 July, the North Cairo Criminal Court acquitted former Egyptian Minister of Finance, Youssef Boutrous Ghali, of long-standing corruption charges in a retrial of the ‘Customs Corruption Case.’ Youssef Boutros Ghali, whose uncle Boutros Boutros Ghali was U.N. secretary general from 1992 to 1996, served as Egypt’s Minister of Finance under former President Hosni Mubarak. He held the title from 2004 until the 2011 revolution that overthrew Mubarak’s rule. Following the uprising, the former minister fled the country and has since been exiled in the United Kingdom, which has no extradition agreement with Egypt. In June 2011, he was convicted in absentia to thirty years in prison. In what has become known as the ‘Customs Corruption Case’, Ghali was found guilty of allowing the official use of private cars which were then held in customs, without their owners’ consent. The prosecution alleged that Ghali used 102 cars, of which he allocated six to his personal convoy and 96 cars to other entities. At the outcome of the investigation, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison and ordered to pay over EGP 70 million (then equivalent to approximately USD…
Former Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali Acquitted of Corruption Charges
July 7, 2023
