Egypt arrests ex-general who stood for election against Sisi

International Desk: Egyptian authorities have arrested a retired general after denying him permission to run in presidential elections in March.

Sami Anan was the last challenger seen as a potential threat to President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, himself a former military chief, whose re-election is considered almost certain.

The arrest of Anan, a former member of Egypt’s supreme military council for armed forces (Scaf), appears to be a calculated move to push him out of the race. Earlier a declaration by Scaf accused him of election violations and said he would be “summoned for interrogation in front of specialised personnel”.

Mahmoud Refaat, a spokesman for Anan’s campaign abroad, said: “I hold the regime of Abdel Fatah al-Sisi entirely responsible for his wellbeing. Yesterday 30 members of campaign were also arrested as well as some of their family members. It’s not known where any of them are being held.”

Anan is the second former high-ranking official to be prevented from running against Sisi, who declared he would run for a second term late last week.

The president has led a crackdown on dissidents while attempting to enact tough economic reforms tied to a $12bn (£8.6bn) International Monetary Fund loan.

Anan previously stated he wished to save Egypt from “wrong policies”, and was seen as a favourite to challenge Sisi on the campaign trail, even attracting support from members of the banned Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood. He later made the controversial choice to appoint the country’s former top auditor Hisham Geneina as one of his two running mates. Geneina was sentenced to a year in prison in 2016 after accusing the Egyptian government of rampant corruption costing the country billions of dollars.

Source: Agencies

risingbd/Dhaka/January 23, 2018/A K Azad