Egyptian opponent Tantawi arrested (lawyer)

An Egyptian appeals court on Monday confirmed the one-year prison sentence handed down to opposition leader Ahmad al-Tantawi, who was then arrested “inside the courthouse”, told AFP. lawyer Nabeh Elganadi.

Tantawi, who had hoped to run in last year's election against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, was found guilty of irregularities during the election campaign in February.

“The sentence at the time was suspended on bail until today's appeal,” Elganadi said, adding that Tantawi was arrested as soon as the decision was made.

The former MP was also “banned from running in parliamentary elections for five years”, according to the human rights association, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms.

The Matareya Criminal Court also confirmed the sentences handed down against 22 members of Tantawi's campaign team, including its director Mohamed Aboul Deyar, to “one year in prison with hard labor”, Elganadi said.

They had been found guilty of “disseminating election-related materials without official authorization” before the elections, which Sissi won in his third landslide victory.

Tantawi had accused authorities of hindering his efforts to gain the support needed to run in the presidential election, under various pretexts, including computer malfunctions.

Tantawi instead asked his supporters to fill out unofficial “popular support” forms – a tactic that authorities have called amounting to electoral fraud.

He ultimately only garnered 14,000 supporters, far from the 25,000 needed in at least 15 of Egypt's 27 governorates to allow him to run.

Alternatively, he should have collected the candidacies of at least 20 parliamentary deputies.

The former lawmaker withdrew his candidacy before the December vote, citing harassment and obstruction.

The National Electoral Authority announced Sisi's victory on December 18 with 89.6 percent of the vote.

He ran against three unknowns: Hazem Omar of the Republican People's Party, Farid Zahran (Egyptian Social Democratic Party) and Abdel-Sanad Yamama (Wafd Party).

According to Human Rights Watch, authorities deployed “a range of repressive tools to eliminate potential challengers,” including the imprisonment of another potential candidate, Hisham Kassem.

Cairo has long been criticized for its human rights record, with rights groups estimating that tens of thousands of political prisoners remain behind bars, many in brutal conditions.

bha/srm