Wael Shalaby, the former Secretary-General of Egypt’s State Council committed suicide while in custody on Monday, according to judicial source at the State Security Prosecution.
Shalaby had been arrested on Sunday and given a 44-day detention pending investigation on corruption charges.
Shalaby resigned from his post on Saturday, days after a procurement manager at the State Council, Gamal El-Laban, was arrested and charged with receiving bribes worth millions of Egyptian pounds.
In addition, Shalaby faced accusations of receiving a bribe while in office.
El-Labban had previously said in the investigations that he “won’t take it alone” and he unveiled the involvement of judges, parliament members and businessmen.
Two days ago, the State Council’s administrative board held a meeting in which they unanimously accepted the resignation of the council’s secretary general Wael Shalaby, according to a statement issued by the council.
The Higher State Security prosecution was supposed to investigate Shalaby following his arrest by the Administrative Control Authority (ACA).
The council’s statement said, “Currently all documents related to contracts signed by the State Council over the past five years will be revised to verify its legal authenticity.” It added, “The Council confirms it will not gloss over any incident of corruption.”
According to a statement issued by the ACA, the former State Council’s secretary general was arrested for a financial bribery case.
Moreover, Gamal El-Laban, the council’s purchasing official, is a defendant in the case, along with two other businesspeople.
The Misdemeanors Court decided to renew the detention of El-Laban and two others for 15 days, pending state security investigations into charges of bribery.
The defendants are accused of receiving bribes in the form of large sums of money and gold.
On 27 December, El-Laban was arrested from his home after the ACA searched his residence, and found EGP 24m, $4m, EUR 2m, SAR 1m, and gold accessories, as well as vehicles and real estate assets.
