A Cairo criminal court acquitted Youssef Boutros-Ghali of corruption and intentional misuse of public money charges, on 6 July 2023. Mr Boutros Ghali, who served in ministerial positions in the Egyptian government from 1993 to 2011, was Finance Minister in 2004 – 2011; he is credited with initiating economic reform programmes that to this day have worked a turnaround in the Egyptian economy. He left Egypt during the so-called Arab Spring in February 2011, and resided together with his family in the UK. As with Egypt’s pre-Arab Spring President Hosny Mubarak, his sons, and all his senior officials, Mr Boutros-Ghali had to face legal charges for various alleged corruption and public money appropriation charges. They were acquitted of the charges against them; Mr Boutros-Ghali was the last to get final acquittal on 6 July 2023.
Mr Boutros-Ghali had been charged with corruption, profiteering, and abuse of public money in several separate cases, was sentenced in absentia to prison and hefty fines in all of them, but was acquitted upon retrial. One case involved alleged use of his ministry’s printing centre to produce a large amount of material for his election campaign for a seat in parliament in 2010. In another, famous as the “licence plates case”, he was tried for and acquitted on retrial of charges of alleged profiteering. The last case involved charges of his authorising the official use of cars held by the Customs Authority, which should have been returned to their owners once customs were paid. The prosecution alleged that Ghali used these cars without the owners’ consent, allocating six to his personal convoy and 96 cars to other entities. This was the case in which he was recently acquitted.
Youssef Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo in 1952 to the prominent Boutros-Ghali Coptic family; Boutros Ghali Pasha (1846 – 1910) was Prime Minister of Egypt from 1908 to 1910, and Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1922 – 2016) was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1992 to 1996 and Egypt’s State Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1977 – 1991. Youssef Boutros Ghali graduated from Cairo University in 1974 with a degree in Economics and Political Sciences, and earned a PhD in Economics from Massachusetts’ MIT in 1981.
Upon graduation, Mr Boutros-Ghali joined the International Monetary Fund in which he grew to be Senior Economist, gaining profound knowledge of the economic problems and policy challenges of diverse countries.
In 1986, Mr Boutros-Ghali was appointed Economic Advisor to Egypt’s Prime Minister and to the Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt in 1986 – 1993. The reform programmes he initiated then ushered a turnaround in the Egyptian economy and laid the groundwork for economic reforms that are being pursued to this day. In 1993 – 1996, he was appointed Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Minister for International Cooperation, then Minister of State for Economic Affairs in 1996 – 1997. In 1997, he assumed the position of Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade which he held till 2001 when he became Minister of Foreign Trade till 2004. From 2004 till 2011, he was Egypt’s Minister of Finance. During the last 20 years, Mr Boutros-Ghali published 22 studies and books, mainly on economics and development.
Since the onset of the Arab Spring in 2011, he has resided with his family in the UK.
In an interview with Cairo 24 news website, Mr Boutros-Ghali said that, after some 12 years in self-exile, he plans to return to Egypt now that he has been fully acquitted. Upon his return, he said, he plans to live as a private citizen, with no intention to re-engage in politics or public life. However, he said, if consulted on matters concerning the financial sector, he would willingly offer his expertise, stressing that he would still maintain his distance from political involvement.
Watani International
8 July 2023