The politicised judiciary in Egypt upheld a previous one-year prison sentence against the prominent Egyptian dissident and former candidate for the presidential elections, Ahmed Al-Tantawi, who was arrested at court following the verdict.
The one-year prison sentence with hard labour was upheld yesterday against Al-Tantawi and all his campaign members, and arrested him during the court session, according to lawyers.
The Egyptian dissident, against whom the first prison sentence was issued in February, wanted to run for the Egyptian presidential elections, in which the head of the regime, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, won. Al-Tantawi wasn’t able to run for presidency elections after he was convicted of sharing the electoral process papers without having the permission of the authorities.
On May 9, a misdemeanour appellate court in Cairo upheld the same ruling against Mohamed Abu Al-Diyar, director of Al-Tantawi’s election campaign.
Al-Tantawi left the country, then announced his return to Egypt in May last year, after postponing his return due to the arrest of a number of his relatives and acquaintances for political reasons.
Last year, Al-Tantawi called on those wishing to give him powers of attorney to fill out manual forms called “popular powers of attorney,” which are similar to the powers of attorney drawn up by Egyptians abroad for potential presidential candidates.
Al-Tantawi blamed the authority for his inability to collect the powers of attorney required to officially complete the candidacy, pointing out that his supporters were deliberately prevented from issuing powers of attorney in the notary public registration offices across the country, under various excuses including computer malfunctions or employees not having the time to do it.
The Egyptian regime has been targeting dissidents and human rights activists since the army overthrew the late President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, and it has been carrying out widespread repression and arrest campaigns against them, which requires serious pressure to be imposed on it to stop its human rights violations and release all political detainees.
