Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution on Tuesday ordered Egyptian former-presidential candidate and head of the Strong Egypt Party Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh be detained for a further 15 days on charges of “leading a terrorist group.”
Egyptian security forces arrested Fotouh on Wednesday February 14 for alleged ties with Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood (MB).
He was taken away upon his return home from London, where he reportedly gave an interview to Qatari owned Al-Jazeera and criticized state policies and President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
A prominent opposition figure, Fotouh led calls in January to boycott the upcoming presidential election. Sisi is running against a sole competitor, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, who happens to be a staunch Sisi supporter.
The prosecution has earlier ordered Fotouh be detained 15 days pending investigations.
The interior ministry said in a statement that it had monitored communication between Fotouh and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group in and outside the country.
The interior ministry said in a statement published on its official Facebook page that the communication sought “to implement a scheme aimed to stir up confusion and instability,” in conjunction with armed groups carrying out acts of sabotage against vital state institutions, seeking to create a chaos that enables them to return to the top of the political scene.
On February 20, South Cairo Criminal Court placed Fotouh, along with 15 others, on a terrorism list.
Secretary of the ‘Tahya Misr’ (Long Live Egypt) Fund Tarek Mahmoud said last week that he will launch a lawsuit to dissolve the Strong Egypt Party within the coming days, after prosecutor-general Nabil Sadek placed the party on a terror list.
Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek on Sunday ordered the seizure of Fotouh’s funds among other individuals after the prosecution put their names on the terrorist list.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
