Politicians Hamdeen Sabahi (L) and Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh (R)
A citizen has filed a report claiming former presidential candidates Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh and Hamdeen Sabahi have spied for Hezbollah and Iran
Egypt’s prosecutor-general has ordered an investigation into a police report that accuses politicians 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. The police complaint was filed by Ashraf Farahat, a lawyer and an international arbitration advisor, in his capacity as a citizen. Farahat claims both Abul-Fotouh and Sabahi attended a conference in Lebanon called “The general Arab conference to support resistance and denounce it being labeled as terrorist.” 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 and was the only candidate to contest the 2014 elections besides Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, 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 Egyptain court verdict has said the group “committed crimes against Egyptian national security.” In May, Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi received a death sentence for committing espionage for Hamas and for Hezbollah. The court said it based its verdict was based on the fact that Hamas and Hezbollah are “terrorist organistions.” Abul-Fotouh, a moderate Islamist, founded the Strong Egypt Party in 2012. He ran in the 2012 presidential elections, coming in fourth place among 13 candidates. Sabahi founded the Popular Current in 2012. He came third in 2012, while in 2014 he achieved just 7 percent of votes to Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s 97 percent.