A request by Egyptian judges in the state council revealed corruption of the council’s former head, Counselor Ahmed Aboul Azm, amid calls for an investigation. The judges renewed demands to hold a general assembly to investigate corruption violations that affected Aboul Azm and his two sons and the former secretary-general of the state council. The judges previously submitted a similar request in January 2019 and have yet to investigate it.

The list of accusations included multiple travel allowances granted to Aboul Azm and his two sons, both judges of the state council, obtained during their travels during his tenure as president of the council. They also called on the judges to investigate the reservation of a permanent residence in one of the major hotels in Cairo for the president of the council, which cost the council’s budget hundreds of thousands of pounds and even reached millions for him and his family, in an incident that had not happened before. They called for an investigation into the incident of Aboul Azm obtaining one of the state council’s holdings, which is a valuable archaeological vase, without returning it.

The accusations also included disbursing large financial rewards to his son, his driver, his brother’s son, an employee of the financial department, and a cashier at the state council’s headquarters. The accusations also included the demand to conduct a drug analysis for the secretary-general of the state council for his reluctance to abuse narcotic substances, opium, and tramadol, due to his previous interrogation.

Aboul Azm was president of the state council appointed by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, after the state council’s former vice-president, Yahya Dakroury, who issued Egyptian rule over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir.