Egypt agriculture minister arrested on corruption charges
Egypt’s agriculture minister has been arrested after he was ordered to resign in connection with a probe into corruption at his ministry.
Salah El Din Mahmoud Helal was detained on Monday after he "resigned on the orders of the president [Abdel Fattah al-Sisi]," AFP quoted a statement from the prime minister's office as saying on Monday.
Helal was arrested after leaving Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab's office.
"He was arrested in connection with a corruption case involving illegal land licenses," a security source said, adding, "He is under investigation."
However, no information has yet been released by the Egyptian judiciary about the exact charges leveled against Helal. The arrest may be connected to Helal’s controversial decision to ban cotton imports in July in an alleged attempt to support local production.
Helal’s decision was overturned a few days later by the Egyptian cabinet. The African country is the largest importer of wheat in the world.
Meanwhile, an Egyptian official said that “there was a host of factors leading up to this decision as he wasn't taking full charge of his ministry and decisions coming out of it were often at odds with other ministries like the trade and industry ministry.”
"There was obvious confusion to decisions on rice and cotton,” the official added.
The arrest comes as Egypt has been gripped by deadly unrest since the ouster of the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in a July 2013 military coup orchestrated by Sisi, who was then the head of the armed forces.
Following the coup, thousands of Morsi’s supporters have been jailed, with many of them, including Morsi himself, receiving death penalties in mass trials.
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