Investigation launched into Egyptian politician after anti-Sisi comments

An investigation has reportedly been opened into complaints filed against former Egyptian presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fotouh who spoke out against the country’s president in an interview last week.

The investigation comes just days after hundreds of young demonstrators reportedly entered Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Saturday evening to protest, according to Egyptian opposition website Kalmati news.  

Egyptian state news, however, reported that "terrorists" had entered the square before security forces broke up their protest.

Last November, the country introduced legislation that bans any protest that takes place without prior police notification and also allows police to use forces against peaceful protesters suspected of breaking any laws.

In the first interview he has given in nearly two years, Aboul-Fotouh told BBC Arabic last week that the country should hold early presidential elections or face a coup or chaos.

"As for Sisi, we have had a year of his rule. There is a deterioration in the political sphere, in the economic sphere, the social sphere," Aboul-Fotouh said. 

"The alternative to early presidential elections is either a military coup against the current regime, or chaos."

On Sunday, lawyer Tarek Mahmoud, who filed a complaint with the Alexandria judicial officials, reportedly accused Aboul-Fotouh of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt declared a terrorist organisation in December 2013, according to independent Egyptian news website Mada Masr.

Mahmoud reportedly said that Aboul-Fotouh’s interviews with the media showed that he was following instructions from the Brotherhood. 

Aboul-Fotouh, a medical doctor by training, was once a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Guidance Bureau before formally quitting the organisation ahead of his run for president in 2012 as an independent candidate. His campaign ads, featuring puppets, drew worldwide media attention.

After the elections in which he came in fourth place, he established the Strong Egypt party which boycotted the country’s recent parliamentary elections, calling the democratic standards in the country inadequate. 

“For any election to be meaningful, there must be a fair rivalry,” Ahmed Emam, the party’s spokesperson, told Al-Monitor last month. “Security bodies are strongly influencing the political scene and systematically cripple any opposition force that can create a real difference,” he said.