The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) said Friday that it intends to sue a privately-owned newspaper that accused the party of plotting to sabotage the country in case Mohamed Morsy is not declared the winner of the presidential election.
Essam al-Erian, deputy head of the FJP, said in a statement that he has asked the party’s legal committee to file a libel and defamation claim against the owner, chairman of the board and editor-in-chief of independent daily Al-Dostour.
Erian said that the newspaper’s report was “all lies” and relied on information that “does not exist except in the minds of those who aim to tarnish the image of the party and its leaders.”
The newspaper “adopted the same policies used against the Muslim Brotherhood and the honest people of this country by the former regime through its security apparatuses,” Erian added.
Erian called on the media to be objective and accurate when quoting FJP leaders and to consider the interests of Egypt before publishing stories that are designed to distort honorable men.
Al-Dostour reported on Thursday that the Brotherhood was planning the “massacre of the century in Egypt.”
The newspaper said that it had received “the minute details of an emergency meeting between the leaders of the Freedom and Justice Party.”
The newspaper accused the FJP of developing a plan to sow chaos if the Presidential Elections Commission did not announce that Morsy is the winner. It alleged that, “A trained group of Brothers will incite young people in demonstrations against Ahmed Shafiq so they will be shot by snipers in Tahrir Square, Abbasseya, Mostafa Mahmoud in Mohandiseen and Dokki.”
It added that the Brotherhood “will order Bedouin groups to attack checkpoints in Sinai to facilitate the entry of Hamas members and Iranian revolutionary guards to help them stage a coup against the armed forces and the president.”
Al-Dostour alleged that the plan includes “the murder of 200 public figures in several governorates at the same time in order to provoke fear and panic.”
