The State Council’s former secretary general Wael Shalaby has allegedly committed suicide while in custody, sources inside the State Council told Daily News Egypt on Monday.
Shalaby had been arrested in December over bribery allegations, and was being held in custody pending investigations.
Shalaby’s apparent suicide was first revealed in a tweet by Moustafa Bakry, a member of parliament.
Shortly after news broke about Shalaby’s suicide, the prosecutor general announced that a media gag would be placed on the court case in which the secretary general was involved.
On Saturday, the State Council’s administrative board held a meeting in which they unanimously accepted Shalaby’s resignation as secretary general, according to a statement issued by the council.
Shalaby was under investigation by the State Security Prosecution following his arrest by the Administrative Control Authority (ACA) on Sunday, the state-run Al-Akhbar Al-Youm reported.
According to a statement issued by the ACA, the State Council’s secretary general was arrested on the back of a financial bribery case. The council’s purchasing official Gamal El-Laban is a defendant in the case, along with two other businesspeople.
