Cairo: An Egyptian court on Thursday ordered a retrial for Habib Al Adli, who served as interior minister under Egypt’s ex-president Hosni Mubarak, in a corruption case, legal sources said.
The decision was made by the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s top appeals tribunal, on the first session of hearing Al Adli’s challenge against a seven-year jail sentence handed down to him by a lower court, they added.
No date has been set yet for the new trial.
In April last year, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Al Adli to seven years in prison on charges of embezzling state money while he was in office. At the time, the court also ordered Al Adli and two other ex-security officials convicted in the same case to repay 195 million Egyptian pounds ((Dh 40.6 million) and a fine of the same amount.
Last month, Al Adli turned himself in to police after a mysterious disappearance since the court sentence was issued against him in April. His presence was mandatory so that the top court could hear his appeal against the April verdict.
Al Adli was sacked during the 2011 uprising that eventually forced Mubarak to resign.
Al Adli, 79, already spent three years in prison on charges of exploiting police conscripts in his private properties.
In 2015, the Court of Cassation acquitted him of complicity in the killing of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 revolt, a case that also involved the former president. Mubarak was later acquitted.
Al Adli served as interior minister for 14 years during which the opposition repeatedly accused him of mass rights abuses.
