CAIRO: An Egyptian emergency court on Sunday sentenced former presidential candidate Abdelmoneim Aboul Fotouh to 15 years in prison for “spreading false news” and “incitement against state institutions”, judiciary sources said.

Aboul Fotouh has been in detention since 2018 and his trial began last November, though Egyptian law sets a legal cap of two years for pretrial detention.

He was sentenced alongside 24 others, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood group, from which the former candidate had defected years before.

Also receiving a 15-year sentence was the Brotherhood’s former supreme guide Mahmoud Ezzat, who is already serving multiple life sentences on other charges.

Mohamed al-Qassas, the deputy head of Aboul Fotouh’s Strong Egypt party, received a 10-year sentence, while the remaining defendants were sentenced to between 10 years and life in prison. Lawyer Khaled Ali, a prominent opposition figure and himself a former presidential candidate, last month submitted what he said was irrefutable evidence of Aboul Fotouh’s innocence.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2022