Egypt to try ex-Mubarak aide for graft

Egypt to try ex-Mubarak aide for graft

The head of Egypt's anti-graft authority, Assem el-Gohari, has ordered the trial of a top aide of ousted President Hosni Mubarak on charges of corruption.

Local newspaper report on Thursday, that the aide will be tried for profiteering.

According to the papers, a former chief of staff of the president ousted in a popular uprising in February, Zakaria Azmi, would appear before a criminal court on suspicion of using his office to amass unlawful gains worth millions of Egyptian pounds, mostly in the form of villas, flats and tracts of land.

No date has been set for the trial.

One of the newspapers, El-Youm el-Sabaa, said that prosecutors demanded that Azmi be given a prison sentence, and ordered to return 86 million Egyptian pounds (14.45 million dollars) to the state.

Egypt has frozen Azmi's assets, along with those of other former senior officials, in an attempt to meet demands by activists seeking tougher action against officials from Mubarak's administration accused of graft and abuse of office.

REUTERS/Williams