Egypt’s Court Lifts Assets-Freeze On Ex-Trade Minister’s Wife

Egypt’s Criminal Court lifted on Sunday the assets-freeze order previously imposed on the wife of the country’s former minister of trade and industry, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, lawyer of the former minister told Ahram Online.

Rachid has appealed the decision of Egyptian illicit gains authority to freeze his family’s assets in March after he paid back LE15 million (roughly $2.2 million) relating to two cases of squandering public funds.

Rachid, currently outside Egypt, served as the minister of trade under Egyptian toppled President Hosni Mubarak from 2004 to 2011.

In 2011, the former minister was sentenced in absentia to a total of 20-years in prison over graft and corruption charges.

Ahram