Egypt Acquits Former Minister of Money Laundering Charges

Habib Al-Adly,

Cairo — An Egyptian court has acquitted former interior minister Habib al-Adly of money-laundering and profiteering charges.

 Adly, who served under the rule of toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, was sentenced in 2011 to 12 years in prison over charges of illegally acquired 181 million Egyptian pounds.

He was also fined four million Egyptian pounds and eight-hundred fifty-three Egyptian pounds for graft charges and nine million and twenty-six pounds for money laundering.

Adly will submit a request to be released after serving a three-years prison term over other charges, his lawyer told Aswat Masriya.

Egypt bans dealings with countries with poor anti-money laundering laws

(KHARTOUM) – Egyptian banks are refusing to receive wire transfers from Sudanese and Libyan companies in line with instructions issued by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBoE).

The headquarters of the Central Bank of Egypt in the capital, Cairo (Photo: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

The CBoE decided to ban banking transactions with several Arab and African countries, including Qatar, Libya, Syria and Sudan, saying those countries are not committed to implementing anti-money laundering laws.

It also said there are suspicions that there are money transfers from those countries to civil and rights organisations inside Egypt and are being misused.

According to Egypt’s Al Youm Al Sabi’ daily newspaper, the Egyptian Chemical and Fertiliser Exports Council (CFEC) ,which is headed by Waleed Hilal, received complaints from several companies in the sector, saying they were negatively affected by the decision to ban banking transactions with those countries.

In a press statement on Wednesday, Hilal said that the companies are facing problems in receiving their dues from clients in some Arab countries due to CBoE instructions.