March 19 (Reuters) – Qatar’s former finance minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi will face a criminal trial, the state news agency said Sunday, following his 2021 arrest over embezzlement allegations.
Emadi will face trial, with an unspecified number of others, over charges of bribery, abuse of position and power, damage to public funds and money laundering, Qatar News Agency said. It is unclear if they all face the same charge.
Emadi was arrested in May 2021, stripped of his ministerial duties and soon after was removed from the boards of the Qatar Investment Agency and Qatar National Bank. He had previously served as CEO at the bank.
Emadi has not commented publicly on the case and Reuters has been unable to contact him.
Emadi was minister of finance in the wealthy Gulf Arab state from 2013 until his arrest and sat on the board of its powerful $300 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, which owns 50% of Qatar National Bank.
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani has said the investigation of Emadi was related to his capacity as finance minister, and not to his posts at the sovereign fund or the bank.
Reporting by Andrew Mills Editing by David Goodman and Barbara Lewis
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