An Egyptian court has upheld a one-year prison sentence with labor for former presidential hopeful Ahmed Tantawy and his campaign manager, Mohamed Abou El-Diar, on charges of forging election documents, Tantawy’s legal team revealed on Tuesday.
Tantawy, who emerged as the most prominent challenger to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in last year’s election, suspended his campaign after alleging widespread harassment. He claimed the arrests of allies and family members hindered his ability to secure the required public endorsements to appear on the ballot.
Egyptian authorities denied any wrongdoing, instead accusing Tantawy’s campaign of distributing unauthorized copies of endorsement forms to gather support.
The original ruling, issued in May and reaffirmed by Egypt’s Misdemeanour Appeals Court on Monday, also bars Tantawy from running for political office for five years and imposes a 20,000 Egyptian pound ($395) fine.
Khaled Ali, a prominent human rights lawyer and member of Tantawy’s legal team, criticized the appeal process, claiming it was riddled with irregularities.
In a Facebook post, Ali said court hearings were missing from official schedules, case files had disappeared from registries, and lawyers faced significant delays in confirming court dates.
The public prosecution has not commented on the ruling or the allegations of procedural flaws raised by Tantawy’s defence team.
