The Public Prosecution ordered the detention of the manager of the Sahara Bank branch in Abu Salim and a member of the Maradah Municipal Council, on charges of appropriating financial aid granted by the government to the municipality in 2016.

A statement published by the Attorney General's Office on Tuesday said that it had been conducting an investigation regarding the theft of the funds.

The chief investigator found that the municipal council official presented himself to the Ministry of Local Government as the mayor of Maradah, and received a bank check worth 310,000 dinars. He then transferred the funds to a personal bank account at the Sahara Bank branch in Abu Salim.

The investigations established that the official “obtained illegal material benefits with the help of those in charge of managing the banking process, as they deliberately opened a bank account for the accused without observing the controls for opening accounts of local administrational bodies".