GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A former culture minister under ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was charged with corruption in Cairo Tuesday 4 September.
State media report that Farouk Hosni, who served for 24 years as cultural minister, had been unable to explain the origins of $1.7 million in assets and was being referred to court for trial. The accusations relate to government-owned property north of the capital.
The former minister claims the wealth was obtained from sales of his art and investments.
Hosni was dismissed from government at the time of the 2011 uprising, and he was for a while prohibited from leaving Egypt.
Hosni, a former professional artist, was responsible for spearheading the construction of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria. He received backing in 2009 from the Arab League, African nations and initially Israel, when he was nominated as a candidate to lead Unesco. He lost the bid after saying he would “burn Israeli books” if they were found in Egyptian libraries.
Links to other sources: BBC, Bloomberg, BikyaMasr, Aljazeera, Al-Ahram
