The Egyptian State Higher Security Court began Saturday its first session in the trial of the former minister of finance, Mohyiddin Al Ghareeb, along with nine former senior Customs Department officials and businessmen.
The Cairo-based Arabic daily Al Gomhuria described the trial’s atmosphere as “tense.”
The minister and the officials are accused of making financial gains and taking deliberate actions resulting in the loss of millions of pounds by the Customs Department.
In its report, Al Jazeera satellite channel said EP29 million has been wasted by the allegedly corrupt officials.
The former minister who had been freed on bail attended the session in addition to the rest of suspects, minus one, and were put in the dock.
The court ordered the arrest of the defendant who failed to attend the session despite the fact that the Prosecution Department had earlier set him free on bail. The court warned the suspects against failure to attend its sessions and threatened to take the necessary actions to bring them under the law.
“The court cannot tolerate this,” the chief judge was shown on Al Jazeera as telling the session.
During the session, which lasted for three hours, the public fund prosecutor Medhat Abdel Fattah read indictment, interrogation transcripts and the defense requests. The judges questioned the suspects regarding the accusations against them all plead not guilty.
The court is due to resume Sunday -- Albawaba.com
