Egypt’s prosecutor-general has ordered an investigation into a police report that accuses former presidential candidates: Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh and Hamdeen Sabahi of spying for Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, according to a prosecution statement on Monday, reported Al-Ahram, a state-run newspaper.
The police complaint was filed by Ashraf Farahat, a lawyer and an international arbitration advisor, in his capacity as a citizen.
The lawsuit was filed by lawyer Ashraf Farhat and calls for Sabahi and Aboul Fotouh to be arrested upon their return to the country from Lebanon.
Farahat claims Aboul Fotouh and Sabahi attended a Hezbollah conference in Lebanon called “The general Arab conference to support resistance and denounce it being labeled as ‘terrorist’.”. He alleges that the two politicians shouldn’t have attended the conference as an Egyptian court verdict has said the group “committed crimes against Egyptian national security”.
The conference was held in mid-July in Beirut to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Hezbollah’s victory against Israel in 2006.
It also aimed to denounce the Arab League’s decision in March to declare Hezbollah a terrorist group.
During the conference opening, Abul-Fotouh, an Islamist who ran in Egypt’s 2012 presidential elections, declared his support for any resistance against the “Zionist enemy.”
“The official Arab regime can say what they may, but Hezbollah and its armed wing, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, is not a terrorist organisation but a popular resistance movement that fought for its country and regained its land,” he added.
Sabahi, a leftist who ran for president in 2012 also spoke in support of the group, saying: “We will continue to give our support and loyalty to those who hold the resistance flag and point their guns in the right direction, against the Zionist enemy.”
The complaint alleged that the two politicians shouldn’t have attended a conference that supports Hezbollah while an Egyptian court verdict has said the group “committed crimes against Egyptian national security.”
Abul-Fotouh, an Islamist, founded the ‘Strong Egypt Party’ in 2012. He ran in the 2012 presidential elections, coming in fourth place among 13 candidates. Sabahi, who founded the ‘Popular Current’ also in 2012, came third.
It is noteworthy that in 2012 presidential elections, Ahmed Shafiq, a former army officer, came second and Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist, came first and became Egypt’s first democratically elected president before he was overthrown in 2013 by Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, the defense minister at the time.
