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Youssef Boutros Ghali, a former Egyptian finance minister under the late President Hosni Mubarak, reappeared in Cairo after more than 14 years abroad following the January 2011 events.
The former minister’s first official appearance came during a private visit to the papal headquarters in Cairo, where he met Pope Tawadros II, pope of Alexandria and patriarch of the See of St. Mark.
In a statement on Monday, the Coptic Church spokesperson said Pope Tawadros had received the former Egyptian finance minister, who offered New Year and Christmas greetings.
In 2011, he was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison over allegations of squandering public money by using cars held in customs.
The court also ordered his dismissal as finance minister and required him to repay about $6.03 million, the alleged value of the cars taken from customs without their owners’ permission.
It also imposed an additional 35.79 million Egyptian pound fine, or about $6.03 million, bringing the total financial penalty to roughly $12.05 million.
Ghali’s appearance in Cairo sparked widespread questions over how he was able to enter the country despite previous court rulings against him in corruption and public funds cases, most notably the “license plates” case.
The former minister’s legal track has since seen major shifts. In July 2023, the North Cairo Criminal Court acquitted Ghali in the case known in the media as the “Customs Corruption” case, in which he had faced allegations including illicit profiteering and abuse of authority.
An Egyptian court also acquitted him in November 2022 in the case widely known as the “license plates” case.
Ghali was born on Aug. 20, 1952, in Cairo Governorate. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Cairo University’s Faculty of Economics and Political Science in 1974 and received a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States in 1981.
Over the course of his career, he served as Minister of Economy from July 1997 to September 1999. From January 1996 to June 1997, he was Minister of State for Economic Affairs.
In 2004, Ghali was appointed minister of finance, a post he held until 2011.
Before entering politics, Ghali worked as an assistant professor of economics at Cairo University’s Faculty of Economics and Political Science.
He also served as director of the Cabinet’s Economic Analysis Center and, from 1991 to 1993, was a board member at the National Bank of Egypt.
In February 2011, Ghali left Egypt for Beirut and then London, where he remained for years, working as an economic adviser to a number of international institutions. He has now returned to Cairo after resolving his legal cases.
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