The family of the former Egyptian presidential candidate and leader of the Strong Egypt party, Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fotouh, has warned that he is going through severe medical conditions in jail and has written his final will in his latest letter to them.
Aboul-Fotouh is a well-known political reformist and former leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition group.
Following the 2011 revolution, he established the Strong Egypt (Masr el-Qawiya) party. He ran for president in 2012 but lost to Mohamed Morsi, the Brotherhood’s candidate. Morsi was overthrown in a military coup one year later by his defence minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who is now president.
Aboul-Fotouh, 71, was arrested in 2018 after he joined a call to boycott that year’s presidential election, which Sisi won by a landslide. He was charged with spreading false news to harm national interests.
He was arrested upon his return from London following an interview with Al-Jazeera in which he criticised the rule of al-Sisi regime.
In March, Aboul-Fotouh was sentenced to 15 years in prison over his criticism of the Sisi government and political activism.
Aboul-Fotouh suffers from several chronic illnesses, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and frequent heart attacks.
In April, his family said he was subjected to a “barbaric” assault by guards in his cell at the notorious Tora prison complex.
In July, Aboul-Fotouh had a heart attack in his prison cell in al-Mazraa jail in Tora complex, the fourth in the last two months.
His family said that they had informed top authorities in the country, including the president, requesting urgent health care to maintain his life.
The former presidential candidate is one of at least 60,000 political prisoners estimated to have been jailed since Sisi came to power nine years ago.
