Interpol arrested on Monday Egypt’s former finance minister Youssef Boutros Ghali when he arrived in Paris on a flight from London, a judicial source in the general prosecution’s international cooperation office told Ahram Online.
There are mixed reports concerning Ghali’s fate. Sources at Cairo airport told Ahram Online that Ghali was only summoned for quesioning by the Interpol after arriving to Paris and would return back to London without being extradited to Egypt.
While judicial source told Ahram Online that he is expected to return to Egypt within a few hours of his arrest, other informed sources say that Ghali might be sent to London, which unlike France has no extradition policy with Egypt.
Ghali served as Egypt’s finance minister from 2004 until the Egyptian revolution in January 2011.
The 61-year old former official has been charged by Egyptian authorities for illicit gains, the wilful waste of public money and damage to public funds.
In June 2011, Cairo Criminal Court sentenced him in absentia to 30 years in a maximum security prison.
A ruling from a separate case gave him another 15 years in prison and a LE30 million fine and also ordered him to return the LE30 million that he’d acquired during his post as finance minister.
Egypt’s head of Interpol Magdy El-Shafey told Al-Hayat satellite channel that Ghali was arrested at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
Ghali is the nephew of former United Nations Secretary General Boutrous Boutrous Ghali, who served in the UN from 1992 to 1996.
Source : Ahram online
