An Egyptian criminal court in Cairo sentenced Habib el-Adly, the former interior minister under former president Hosni Mubarak, to seven years in jail on Saturday, for embezzling more than $100m of public funds. Adly was the head of Egypt’s feared international security forces until the uprising that overthrew the Government in 2011. Adly has faced several criminal charges [Al Jazeera report] in connection with his time in office, but had been acquitted of killing protesters in 2012 and of money laundering and profiteering charges in 2015. In 2015 Adly was released from prison [Jerusalem Post report] after serving three years for using police officers as free labor on his properties. Along with Adly, 100 other ministry officials [Daily News report] were accused of accepting bribes. The court dismissed charges against 80 defendants in January 2016, due to a lack of evidence. On Friday two other officials were also sentenced to seven years in prison and the court ordered them all three to pay back $108m and fined them the same amount. The decision can still be appealed to the highest court of Egypt.

Mubarak, Adly and other members of his administration have been consistently involved in some form of judicial proceeding since the Egyptian Revolution [JURIST backgrounder]. In 2015 an Egyptian court acquitted [JURIST report] Habib el-Adly of charges alleging he used his political influence to acquire approximate $23 million. Also in 2015 Habib el-Adly was cleared of all charges [JURIST report] for “squandering public funds and profiteering” after allegedly making an illegal deal with German Company UTSCH to sell license plates for higher than market value. In 2017, Mubarak was cleared of all charges [JURIST report] in a retrial of charges that he killed protesters during the civil uprising in 2011.