Cairo court places Islamist, former presidential candidate Aboul Fotouh on terror list

CAIRO – 23 November 2020: A Cairo criminal court has approved a request by the Supreme State Security Prosecution to place former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh and 27 others in terror lists.

The decision also includes famous political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and Al-Hassan, the son of outlawed Muslim Brotherhood leader Khairat El-Shater.

Aboul Fotouh, a physician and an Islamist politician who seceded from the Muslim Brotherhood group, was arrested in February 2018 over joining an outlawed group and possessing political leaflets.

He faces charges including joining an outlawed group that aims to disrupt constitution and laws, prevent state institutions and public authorities from carrying out their duties, and spread false news about the political and economic conditions in the country, with a view to disturbing the public peace within the framework of the objectives of the “terrorist” Muslim Brotherhood.

Aboul Fotouh, according to an Interior Ministry’s statement the month he was arrested, conducted a series of secret meetings abroad, including the latest meeting in London on February 8, when he communicated with member of the international MB organization Lotfi al-Sayed Ali Mohamed, and two MB members who fled to Turkey, namely Mohamed Gamal Heshmat and Hossam ad-Din Atef al-Shazly.

“The aim behind the meeting was to set the mechanisms of carrying out MB chaotic schemes and exploiting the accompanying political atmosphere,” the statement read.