CAIRO: Former Egyptian trade and industry minister Rashid Mohammed Rashid was sentenced in absentia on Saturday to five years in prison for embezzlement of public funds, state news agency Mena reported. Rashid, who is the subject of an international search warrant, was also ordered to pay a fine of more than nine million Egyptian pounds. Cairo's criminal court found Rashid guilty of embezzling funds from the export development fund. Several businessmen and officials of Hosni Mubarak's regime, which was toppled February 11 by a popular uprising, are under investigation for embezzlement and corruption. Uprooting corruption was and remains one of the central demands of the activist who pushed for Mubarak's departure. Mubarak alongside his sons Alaa and Gamal is set to face trial on August 3 on charges of corruption and of ordering the killing of protesters during the uprising in January and February that toppled the veteran leader. Former Egyptian finance minister Yussef Boutros Ghali was sentenced to 30 years in prison in absentia on corruption charges on June 4. Dozens of people were injured in clashes between two groups of protesters, for and against putting former president Hosni Mubarak on trial, Egypt's official news agency MENA reported on Saturday. Mubarak, 83, was forced from office in February in a popular uprising driven by anger at high-level official corruption and widespread poverty. He is due to stand trial on Aug. 3 for the killing of protesters and abuse of power. The agency said the clashes erupted after anti-Mubarak protesters arrived in an area where hundreds of Mubarak's supporters were staging a rally. “The situation then developed into clashes between the two groups who threw rocks at each other,” the agency said adding that security forces separated the two groups.
