Al-Emadi will face a criminal trial after his 2021 arrest on embezzlement charges.
Qatar’s former finance minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi will face a criminal trial following his 2021 arrest on embezzlement charges.
Al-Emadi was arrested in May 2021 but little has been made public about his case. The state-run Qatar News Agency (QNA) said in a brief statement on Sunday that he would face trial along with an unspecified number of others over the charges.
“Since the evidence culled from the case documents proves that the accused committed the offenses alleged to have been committed by them, the Attorney General issues an order referring the accused to the Court for punishment for the offenses alleged to have been committed by them, Which included bribery, appropriation of public funds, abuse of office, abuse of power, loss of public money and money laundering,” the QNA report said.
The report did not specify how much money the former minister was accused of stealing.
Al-Emadi rose to prominence in the Gulf Arab Emirates after the current emir ascended the throne and after overseeing the transformation of Qatar National Bank into the largest lender in the Middle East.
Once one of Qatar’s most powerful executives, al-Emadi also served as president of the bank, on the board of the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Qatar, and as chairman of the executive board of Qatar Airways.
Al-Emadi has not commented publicly on the matter.
Reuters news agency reported that Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani has said the investigation was related to his capacity as finance minister, not his positions at the sovereign fund or the bank.