Zahi Hawass	Indiana Jones

  
Zahi Hawass, Egypt's controversial antiquities minister, was sentenced to a year in jail on Sunday for failing to comply with a court order. According to some reports the case relates to 
a land dispute while others, including Hawass's own blog, say it involves a quarrel with a bookshop at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Although Hawass remains at liberty pending an appeal, the case is causing some delight in Egypt. He has made plenty of enemies over the years with his domineering behaviour and his publicity-seeking "Indiana Jones" approach to Egyptology.

He had been head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities since 2002 and, in the last days of Mubarak's rule, became Egypt's 
first antiquities minister – an appointment that was renewed after Mubarak's fall.

Last week, many were disgusted to learn that the travelling King Tut exhibition had been used to promote his "Zahi Hawass" brand of menswear (for "the man who values self-discovery, historicism and adventure").  He has also been soliciting donations to establish the predictably-named "Zahi Hawass Chair of Egyptology" at the American University in Cairo.

News of the Hawass case came as Egypt's public prosecutor 
announced that Ahmed Nazif, the former prime minister, and Youssef Boutrous Ghali, the former finance minister, are to face trial on charges of corruption and squandering public money.
The former interior minister, Habib el-Adli, is already facing charges. Ex-president Mubarak is in custody in a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh, while his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, are being held at Tora prison in Cairo.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 18 April 2011.

UPDATE, 19 April: The Talking Pyramids blog has a lot more detail about the background to the court care.