CAIRO: Egypt’s public prosecutors on Wednesday ordered the education minister to stand trial over accusations he failed to follow a court ruling, a lawyer on the case told AFP.
The case dates back to 2013, more than a decade before Mohamed Abdellatif was appointed minister, and involves a school in the Upper Egyptian city of Minya that the education ministry had been renting, said Amr Abdel Salam, a lawyer representing the school’s owners.
He said Egyptian courts had ruled the building must be returned to its owners, but successive governments allegedly kept delaying execution of the order.
In December, a formal warning was sent to Abdellatif but he refused to carry it out, the lawyer said.
“This forced the school owners to take legal action against him,” he added.
If found guilty, the minister could be jailed, removed from office and ordered to pay one million Egyptian pounds ($21,000) in compensation, Abdel Salam said.
The minister’s trial is set to begin on May 13 with a first hearing.
The ministry has not yet commented on the case.