Habib el-Adly: Seven-year jail sentence for corruption

An Egyptian court has sentenced former interior minister Habib el-Adly, who served under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, to seven years in jail for corruption.

Adly was found guilty on Saturday of embezzling more than $110m of public funds. The verdict can be appealed before Egypt’s top civil court, the court of cassation.

A long-serving official at the top of Egypt‘s feared internal security apparatus, Adly has faced a string of criminal cases against him since the 2011 uprising that ousted Mubarak.

READ MORE: Hosni Mubarak walks free after six-year detention

He was released in 2015 after serving three years in prison on charges of using police conscripts as free labour on his private properties

In 2012, he was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of ordering the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising. The charges were dropped two years later after an appeals court ordered a retrial.

Adly has also been acquitted on other charges of money laundering and profiteering. He did not attend Saturday’s verdict and is expected to be taken into custody.

A number of Mubarak-era officials have secured acquittals since the military overthrew president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and its former commander-in-chief Abdul Fattah el-Sisi took power.

Alongside Adly, the court sentenced two other ministry officials to seven years in jail without parole, according to court documents. 

Another eight officials were sentenced to between three and five years in jail.

Mubarak, meanwhile, was freed last month after six years in detention, having been cleared of murder charges.