Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat referred Mohamed Rifa’a Al-Tahtawi to criminal court on Tuesday on charges of abusing his position.

Al-Tahtawi was chief of staff under former president Mohamed Morsi who was ousted in July 2013.

The former official is accused of abusing his position to appoint a lawyer as an expert adviser in the presidency’s public relations office without a background check, according to state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. The lawyer is wanted on charges relating to the burning down of video rental shops.

The prosecution ordered the detention of Al-Tahtawi and his deputy on 4 August 2013 for 15-days of questioning over clashes outside the presidential palace in December 2012, for which Morsi is accused of inciting violence.

Al-Tahtawi was detained along with the former president on 3 July when the now President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who was defence minister at the time, announced that Morsi had been ousted.