The New York Times reported on Wednesday, that Egypt’s former Interior Minister, Habib al-Adly, has been advising the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, according to sources.
The official spokesperson for the Saudi embassy in the US, Fatma Baasyan, did not confirm or deny the claims, while Adly’s lawyer, Farid al-Deeb, denied the reports.
Al-Deeb stated that the former minister had not left Egypt, affirming that al-Adly will be appealing his seven-year sentence at the Court of Cassation on 11 January 2018, after being found guilty on charges of corruption.
Al-Adly was found guilty of appropriating the ministry’s funds and acquiring illicit gains amounting to a total of LE 529 million.
In May, Egypt’s Ministry of the Interior notified the Cairo Public Prosecution that police had been searching for al-Adly after he allegedly escaped from his home in 6th of October City.
Al-Adly served as former-president Hosni Mubarak’s Minister of the Interior from 1997 to 2011, the longest serving interior minister under Mubarak. Al-Adly was released from detention in March 2015 after being acquitted on charges of using his political influence to acquire LE 181 million of illicit funds.
In 2014, he was acquitted, alongside six of his aides and Hosni Mubarak, on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters during the January 2011 uprising.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
