‘Ex-Egypt presidential candidate should be in a mental hospital’

An Egyptian lawyer has filed a legal complaint accusing former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi of “igniting public opinion and inciting against the state”, demanding he be put in a mental hospital.

According to Egyptian media outlets, the lawyer said in his complaint that Sabbahi, who ran against the incumbent President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in the 2014 election, launched a campaign to harm the country’s economy and tourism sector, and to disturb the country’s security and stability with the aim of overthrowing the current regime and bringing down the state.

He also asked that Sabbahi be “protected from himself” and that the state be “protected from his madness”, alleging that the could be killed by terrorists who would want the state’s security apparatus to get falsely accused of killing him.

READ: Egypt’s PEC rejects Sabbahi’s appeal

The way out, according to the lawyer, was to hold Sabbahi accountable or admit him to a mental hospital so as to “cure him from the madness of repeated crimes against himself, the state and the people.”

The complaint says that if Sabbahi is diagnosed as suffering from a mental illness then he would receive the necessary medical care, and if turns out he is in a good condition, then he would be referred to trial.

Sisi Era – Cartoon [Carlos Latuff/MiddleEastMonitor]

“We are facing repressive authorities that are hostile to the Egyptian people and that do not respect the constitution,” he said during a speech.

The Egyptian authorities “harm the interests of the people and the state,” he added criticising the regime’s “corruption, tyranny, repression”.