• Ali Sherif al-Emadi will stand trial for embezzlement, bribery.
• And appropriation of public money, abuse of office.
• Including abuse of power, damage to public money and money laundering.

Ali Sherif al-Emadi, a former finance minister of Qatar, will stand trial after being detained in 2021 on suspicion of embezzlement.

Al-Emadi was detained in May 2021, but not much is known about his case.

According to a brief statement released on Sunday by the government-run news agency, he will stand trial alongside an undefined number of other defendants for the charges.

“Since evidence extracted from the case documents proved that the accused committed the crimes ascribed to them, the Attorney General issued an order to refer the accused to the Criminal Court to punish them for the crimes ascribed to them, which included bribery, appropriation of public money, abuse of office, abuse of power, damage to public money and money laundering,” the QNA report said.

The amount of money the former minister is alleged to have stolen was not made explicit in the report.

Once the current emir succeeded to the throne and after directing the transition of Qatar National Bank into the largest lender in the Middle East, Al-Emadi gained notoriety in the Gulf Arab emirate.

Al-Emadi, formerly one of Qatar’s most influential officials, previously served as chairman of the bank, a member of the board of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, and the head of Qatar Airways’ executive board.

Al-Emadi has made no public remarks about the situation.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, the prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar, was quoted by the news agency Reuters as saying that the probe concerned him in his capacity as minister of finance rather than his roles at the sovereign fund or the bank.

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