Egypt places opposition figure on terrorist list

An Egyptian court ordered Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fotouh, a prominent opposition figure, be added to Egypt's list of terrorists yesterday, according to Egypt's official Middle East News Agency and Anadolu Agency (AA). The ruling is set to go into effect 60 days after its announcement.

Last week, public prosecution authorities ordered that Aboul-Fotouh be detained for 15 days so he might answer charges of having "led and revived an outlawed group" and "spread false news."

The leader of Egypt's opposition Strong Egypt Party, Aboul-Fotouh was detained last Wednesday, one day after he visited London where he criticized Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in an interview with Qatar's Al-Jazeera news channel.

A prominent politician, Aboul-Fotouh was a leading a member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood before splitting from the group and running for president as an independent candidate in Egypt's first free election in 2012. Egypt is currently gearing up to hold presidential elections late next month. Sissi is expected to win the March vote with his only challenger an obscure politician and one of his most ardent supporters. Moussa Mustafa Moussa entered the race in the 11th hour, sparing Sissi and his government the deeper embarrassment of a one-candidate election. But the pre-election turmoil has not been confined to would-be candidates. Leaders of opposition parties who called for a boycott of the vote are being investigated on allegations they are seeking to destabilize the country. Over a dozen international and regional rights groups issued a joint statement, saying the upcoming election does not meet the minimum requirements for a fair and free vote and called on Cairo's Western allies to denounce the farcical election.