“Egyptian Activist Reports Arrest of Family Members of Presidential Candidate Tantawi”

Prominent Egyptian human rights activist Hossam Bahgat confirmed, on Thursday, that the security authorities in Egypt arrested two members of the family of former parliamentarian Ahmed Tantawi, who announced last month his intention to run in the upcoming presidential elections.

Bahgat told AFP, “Security arrested Muhammad Naguib Tantawi and Muhammad Sayed Ahmed Attia on Tuesday evening in Kafr al-Sheikh (Nile Delta),” referring to the uncle and uncle of the former parliamentarian.

“Today (Thursday) is an example before the State Security Prosecution in Cairo,” added Bahgat, an official of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

Tantawi, who resides in Beirut and set a date for his return to Egypt on the sixth of this month, announced his intention to run for the next presidential elections, scheduled for 2024.

Last month, he wrote on his official Facebook page, “My categorical intention and firm determination to run in the 2024 presidential elections remains valid if I am not prevented directly (that the day of candidacy opens while I am alive, free and correct) or indirectly (that the electoral process be serious and real, I am on my covenant with you, I have not and will not participate in joking).

In March 2018, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was re-elected with more than 97% of the vote in an election that did not witness surprises, in which his only opponent was one of his biggest supporters.

In 2019, a controversial constitutional reform was approved in a referendum, according to which Sisi’s second term was extended from four to six years until 2024. He can run for a third term of six years in 2024.

The arrests coincided with Cairo’s launch, on Wednesday, of the “national dialogue” sessions called for by the Egyptian president, with the participation of political parties and factions.

At the opening session, former Secretary-General of the League of Arab States and veteran Egyptian diplomat Amr Moussa said, “People are asking about freedoms and their guarantees… It is time to deal directly, immediately and comprehensively with the file of pre-trial detention in order to close it permanently.”

Last year, Al-Sisi decided to reconstitute the presidential pardon committee, so that Egypt would witness the release of dozens of prisoners of conscience, but human rights organizations are calling for more.

Human rights organizations estimate the number of political prisoners in Egypt at about 60,000, but Sisi always denies this.