Judge Assem El-Gohari, deputy minister of justice, has decided to try Mubarak’s former presidential chief of staff, Zakaria Azmi, in criminal court on charges of abuse of authority and illegal profiteering.

El-Gohari, who heads the ministry’s office that combats illegal profiteering, said that weeks of investigations into Azmi’s assets have revealed that the income the ex-government official declared are not sufficient to account for the magnitude of wealth he has been able to accumulate.

Azmi, government registers show, owns scores of mansions, homes, villas, land, as well as huge bank accounts.

The government has Azmi up and denied him bail, pending the results of its investigations in the aftermath of mass demonstrations last spring that demanded symbols of Mubarak-era corruption be brought to justice.