The Illicit Gains Authority (IGA) referred Rachid Mohamed Rachid, former trade and industry minister, and his daughter to the Criminal Court over smuggling LE500 million to Cyprus and withholding it from their financial disclosures after Rachid left his post in the aftermath of January 2011.
The IGA issued an international arrest warrant against the minister and his daughter, who escaped justice after seizing public money. It also called on Interpol to arrest them.
Both Rachid and his daughter Alia may be handed a seven-year prison sentence and fined up to LE1.44 million if charged with illicit gains. They also face charges of hiding money from their financial disclosures.
The minister and his daughter left Egypt in February 2011 before the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak. They stayed in Qatar for a significant amount of time and obtained diplomatic passports there. They visited London several times, but returned to Doha and other undisclosed locations after being accused by British authorities of money laundering.
The IGA called on the court to include Rachid’s wife and relatives in the lawsuit, so the verdict would be issued against them in case of conviction as fines issued in absentia are to be paid from the defendant’s properties.
The lawsuit investigations lasted for five months and before being stopped under the rule of deposed President Mohamed Morsy. The investigations had also been halted several months before the ouster of Morsy when public prosecution, headed by Talaat Abdullah, took Rachid off the watchlists and called on the European Union to cancel the freeze on his assets without concluding investigations.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
