Interpol detained on Monday Egypt's former finance minister Youssef Boutros Ghali when he arrived in Paris on a flight from London, a judicial source in the general prosecution's international cooperation office told Ahram Online.

Informed sources told Ahram Online that Ghali was only summoned for questioning by Interpol after arriving to Paris and would return back to London without being extradited to Egypt, as he holds UK political asylum papers.

Ghali served as Egypt's finance minister from 2004 until the Egyptian revolution in January 2011.

The 61-year old former official has been charged by Egyptian authorities with illicit gains, the wilful waste of public money and damage to public funds.

In June 2011, Cairo Criminal Court sentenced him in absentia to 30 years in a maximum security prison.

A ruling from a separate case gave him another 15 years in prison and a LE30 million fine and also ordered him to return the LE30 million that he'd acquired during his post as finance minister.

Egypt's head of Interpol Magdy El-Shafey told Al-Hayat satellite channel that Ghali was arrested at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

Ghali is the nephew of former United Nations Secretary General Boutrous Boutrous Ghali, who served in the UN from 1992 to 1996.

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