Egypt court bans Mubarak-era interior minister from travel

A Cairo court has banned former interior minister Habib al-Adly and 12 other interior ministry officials from leaving the country.

Adly, who is accused of "abuse of office" by issuing rewards to police officers and ministry officials, was referred to trial on charges of seizing more than EGP 2.3 billion ($293 million), along with a dozen other officials.

The court scheduled the next hearing for 28 February and handed the 13 defendants asset-freezing injunctions, preventing them from hiding any ill-gotten gains.

After the hearing, Adly's lawyer, Farid al-Deeb, said that the court's decision turns it into an "investigating authority, which is unlawful".

The lawyer said a judge from the justice ministry had been investigating the matter for three years and had not requested asset-freezing injunctions.

The former interior minister was dismissed from his post in January 2011 by then-President Hosni Mubarak, who dismissed his entire cabinet in the midst of the 2011 revolution.

The 18 days of protests began on National Police Day and were partly an outburst against repressive police practices.

When the investigation began in 2012, the judge running it slapped a travel ban on Adly and more than 100 other security officials being investigated.

Adly's travel ban lasted six months, while the rest were banned from travel for a year, but the decision was never renewed during the course of the investigation.

The investigating judge dismissed around 90 of those under investigation after they returned over EGP 150 million ($19.1 million), asserting that they had received the funds in good faith.

The former interior minister was taken into custody days after Mubarak's removal, and has since been put on five trials including the ongoing one which began on Sunday.

Adly was served with a "ratified sentence" in one trial and was acquitted in three others.

In March 2015, the former interior minister was released from Tora prison after spending more than four years in custody.