Tamarrod co-founder says prominent members were paid to keep silent

Moheb Dous, a founding member of Egypt’s Tamarrod movement, believes that none of its members have benefited from the movement, claiming that the only ones who have benefitted are certain bodies who were interested in the group’s emergence for political purposes.

In a video published on the web site for Al-Shorouk newspaper, Dous revealed that: “the movement split because its founding ideology completely changed when the movement supported the military backed regime after 3 July.”

Dous explained that a few members avoided media attention in return for millions of Egyptian pounds outside the movement’s agreed framework, which means in addition to the financial support Tamarrod received as a group before 30 June during meetings with suspicious businessmen like Hussein Salem. However despite their silence, Dous insists that most of Tamarrod’s founders believe in the need to prosecute the National Salvation Front’s leaders.

Dous added that, “Tamarrod members who announced their support for General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s presidential bid as stated by Mai Wehbe, the movement’s information officer, have further split the movement. Tamarrod’s founders, and I am one of them, oppose this move because it is inconsistent with the movement’s objectives.”

Dous surprisingly announced that he does not even recognize Egypt’s Committee of 50 to amend the constitution, saying that: “The fact that Tamarrod members have joined the Committee and approved the military trials constitutes a disaster. Tamarrod does not have enough experience to enter the political arena. The movement’s seven members who want to run for parliamentary elections will cause us to loose the popular support we had in our infancy, when we opened our headquarters to collect signatures to withdraw confidence from the [elected] president. This political move will thus divert Tamarrod from its populist objectives.”