The London School of Economics has been accused 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.

Youssef 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.

Students who attended the lecture said they were appalled at Boutros-Ghali's presence at the event. "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."

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.

Makram-Ebeid, who said that she was in Cairo's Tahrir Square last year during the uprising against Hosni Mubarak's regime, said that she would be lodging a complaint with the LSE. She tweeted a picture of Boutros-Ghali during the lecture and urged Egyptians to come and confront him.

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.

Boutros-Ghali's presence was the latest awkward reminder for the LSE of the storm of negative publicity it faced last year over links between it and the regime of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

In September, Tripoli University said it would be asking the LSE to return the £1.5m pledged by the dictator's son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who obtained his PhD there. The LSE faced furious criticism over its links with the Gaddafi regime, leading to the resignation of its director, Sir Howard Davies.

Gehad Youssef, another London-based Egyptian student, also pointed out that Monday night's lecture took place in the LSE's Sheikh Zayed Theatre, which is named after a late ruler of the United Arab Emirates.

"The LSE have a track record of links to people like this and I think it's revolting that they have in effect given shelter tonight to an international fugitive," said Youssef.

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 said.

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.

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.

It also ruled that he used a finance ministry printing centre to produce a large amount of materials for his personal election campaign for a seat in parliament in 2010, the court source said.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We are committed to working with the Egyptian authorities on a range of issues, including on legal matters. The UK does not have extradition relations with Egypt and it is for the home secretary to decide whether or not to enter into special extradition arrangements. I can't talk about individual cases, but as a point of principle if we are presented with compelling evidence we will act on it."