Egypt to try ex-Mubarak aide for graft

CAIRO - The head of Egypt's anti-graft authority, Assem el-Gohari, has ordered a top aide of ousted President Hosni Mubarak to be tried on charges of corruption and illegal profiteering, local newspapers reported on Thursday.

They said Zakaria Azmi, former chief of staff of the president ousted in a popular uprising in February, would appear before a criminal court on suspicion of using his office to amass unlawful gains worth millions of Egyptian pounds, mostly in the form of villas, flats and tracts of land.

No date has been set for the trial. El-Youm el-Sabaa newspaper said prosecutors demanded that Azmi be given a prison sentence and ordered to return 86 million Egyptian pounds ($14.45 million) to the state.

Egypt has frozen Azmi's assets, along with other former senior officials, in an attempt to meet demands by activists seeking tougher action against officials from Mubarak's administration accused of graft and abuse of office.