Fugitive ex-minister causes stir in London

London: Egyptian students have accused the London School of Economics of giving special treatment to a former Egyptian finance minister who turned up at a public lecture months after a Cairo court sentenced him, in absentia, to 30 years in prison for profiteering and abusing state and private assets.

Yousuf Boutros-Ghali widely viewed in Egypt before last year's revolution as a public face of a regime that enriched the wealthy at the expense of the poor was ushered out of a side door by LSE security on Monday night, shortly before the end of the lecture.

Boutros-Ghali has been living openly in London despite being convicted of corruption and profiteering in Egypt. An Interpol "red notice", which seeks information about a suspect, was issued after he fled the country but he cannot be arrested by police in the UK until Egypt issues an international arrest warrant.

"The LSE authorities should be ashamed of themselves," said Dina Makram-Ebeid, a PhD student in anthropology at the university, who stood up at the lecture and said that she and others were "appalled" at Boutros-Ghali's presence.

"This man is a criminal in Egypt who should be serving 30 years in prison there. I would not have expected the LSE just to sneak him out like this."

Not ticketed

The lecture was entitled "The Year of Egypt's Second Revolution: The Balance Sheet So Far" and was given by Professor Roger Owen, A.J. Meyer Professor of Middle East History at Harvard University.

A spokesman for the LSE said the lecture was not ticketed and that Boutros-Ghali did not appear to have been on a guest list.

"Some people in the audience recognised him and it seems that word went out on Twitter that he was there, and there were people calling for others to come down to the theatre," he added.

He said security guards went into the theatre and advised Boutros-Ghali that he and the people he was with might wish, for his own safety, to leave by a nearby side door, which he did shortly before the end of the lecture.

"Just as he was driving away in a taxi one of the security guards got a call to say that there was an Interpol notice out for him. They then contacted Westminster police to pass on the fact that he was here," he added.

Abuse of assets

Boutros-Ghali, the nephew of the former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was sentenced last summer for profiteering and abusing state and private assets. He also resigned in early February as head of the International Monetary Fund's main policy steering panel.

A Cairo court ruled that Boutros-Ghali took private vehicles held at the customs authority and allowed others to use them without the permission of their owners.

He took six of the vehicles, including three Mercedes and a BMW, for his private use and delivered another 96 to other parties, the court said.