Ex-ministers referred to court over public funds
Fire tore through a seven-storey Interior Ministry building in central Cairo on Tuesday as Egypt’s prosecutor general on Tuesday referred two former ministers to a criminal court.
The fire broke out shortly after thousands of policemen protested there to demand better working conditions.
"It is likely to be related to the protests," an Interior Ministry source told Reuters as flames and a column of black smoke billowed up over the centre of the city.
But some witnesses said the protests had been peaceful and accused the officials of using the protests as cover to burn potentially incriminating documents.
Policemen have staged similar strikes and protests since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled, and last month about six vehicles were set on fire outside the same compound.
Egypt’s military rulers sentenced the suspected arsonists, sacked policemen demanding reinstatement, to jail terms in military prison.
The military cordoned off the building earlier on Tuesday to protect it from the police protesters, the state news agency MENA reported. Witnesses put the number of protesters at about 3,000.
A number of other security buildings were set ablaze earlier this month, and witnesses at the time said police had been burning secret documents that could incriminate security officials. Police also blamed protesters for those fires.
Former ministers charged
Meanwhile the former ministers of finance and information were referred to a criminal court on charges of misusing public funds.
"Prosecutor general Abdel Magid Mahmud has ordered former information minister Anas al-Fiqqi and former finance minister Yussef Boutros Ghali to appear before the Cairo criminal court, accused of deliberately wasting public funds," the prosecutor’s office said.
Investigations indicated that Ghali agreed to give Fiqqi 36 million Egyptian pounds ($6 million) from the state budget for election coverage in state media, the prosecutor’s office said.
Fiqqi and Ghali are the latest officials to face criminal charges as part of sweeping corruption investigations since an 18-day uprising triggered the resignation of long-time president Hosni Mubarak on February 11.
The former ministers of interior, housing and tourism are also being prosecuted for alleged corruption and fraud, along with several members of the once ruling National Democratic Party.
A military council has ruled Egypt since the nationwide protests demanding political and economic change forced Mubarak to step down.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which is overseeing a six-month transition period, has vowed to pave the way towards democracy and to bring to justice all officials found guilty of abuse.