Habib Ibrahim El-Adly (, ; born 1 March 1938) is a former Egyptian politician. He served as interior minister of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

from November 1997 to January 2011. He was the longest serving interior minister under President

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and the 41st Prime Minister of Egypt, prime minister from 1981 to ...

. Following the

2011 Egyptian revolution The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January Revolution (;), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police holiday" as a statement against ...

, Adly was convicted of

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

and conspiring to kill protestors and was sentenced to life in prison. This conviction was later dropped.

Early life and education

El-Adly was born in 1938. He graduated from the police academy in 1959.

Career

In 1965, Adly joined the

State Security Investigations Service The State Security Investigations Service ( ) was the highest national internal security authority in Egypt. Estimated to employ 100,000 personnel, the SSI was the main security and intelligence apparatus of Egypt's Ministry of Interior (Egypt), ...

. After working at various investigation departments, he was employed at the foreign ministry from 1982 to 1984. He then investigated state security matters, and became assistant interior minister in 1993. He replaced General Hassan Al Alfi as interior minister following the November 1997 Luxor massacre. Adly was one of the most significant figures who supported Mubarak during his reign. Adly served as interior minister in two different cabinets. He was replaced by Mahmoud Wagdy on 31 January 2011 as part of a cabinet reshuffle aimed at appeasing the mass protests during

Post-revolution

During the uprising, the Egyptian attorney general announced Adly had been given a travel ban. Following Mubarak's resignation, Adly and two other former ministers were arrested on corruption charges. His assets were ordered frozen by a court order. Adly is estimated to have amassed a fortune of 1.2 billion US dollars. He pleaded not guilty to corruption charges on 5 March 2011, answering questions by the judge on whether he had illegally profited from his government position or laundered money by saying "that did not happen."MacFarquhar, Neil. Stack, Liam
Ex-Security Chief Hauled to Court as Egyptians Storm His Compound
''The New York Times'', 5 March 2011. On 5 May 2011, Adly was found guilty of

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

and sentenced to 12 years in prison. In June 2012, Adly, along with deposed President

, was found guilty of conspiring to kill protestors during the uprising and was sentenced to life in prison in May 2012. In March 2013, the conviction for fraud and money laundering was overturned by the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case; they only interpret the relevant law. In this, they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In ...

and a retrial was requested. On retrial, Adly was acquitted on all charges relating to complicity in the killing of protesters as well as using political influence for private gain. and was released from detention in March, 2015. In April 2017, he was sentenced to 7 years in prison, based on charges of embezzling about $122 million. In May 2018, the Cairo Court of Appeal began the retrial of former interior minister Adly and a number of other ministers. Together they are charged with siphoning off public funds from the ministry in an amount exceeding LE 2 billion in the period between 2000 and 2011. In May 2019, Egyptian authorities unfroze his assets, after he had been acquitted on all corruption-related charges.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adly, Habib Ibrahim El- 1938 births Living people Egyptian prisoners and detainees Egyptian politicians convicted of crimes Politicians from Cairo Interior ministers of Egypt National Democratic Party (Egypt) politicians People convicted of money laundering Politicians convicted of fraud People of the Egyptian revolution of 2011 Egyptian politicians convicted of corruption Prisoners and detainees of Egypt People convicted of attempted murder 20th-century Egyptian politicians 21st-century Egyptian politicians Egyptian police officers 20th-century police officers