It was announced on Sunduj ay by the state news agency of Qatar that former finance minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi would be tried in criminal court after his arrest in 2021 on charges of embezzlement.
According to Qatar News Agency, Emadi will go to trial on charges of bribery, abuse of position and power, damage to public funds, and money laundering along with an unknown number of others. It is not clear if each of them is being charged with the same thing.
The arrest of Emadi in May 2021 resulted in his removal from his ministerial position and, shortly thereafter, from his positions on the boards of the Qatar Investment Agency and the Qatar National Bank. At one point, he was the bank’s chief executive officer.
Reuters has been unable to get in touch with Emadi for comment on the case.
From 2013 until his arrest in 2016, Emadi served as minister of finance in Qatar, a wealthy Gulf Arab state, and as a member of the board of the Qatar Investment Authority, a $300 billion sovereign wealth fund that owns half of Qatar National Bank.
The investigation into Emadi, according to Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, was related to his role as finance minister and not his roles at the sovereign fund or the bank.
