By The Misdemeanor Appeals Court in El-Matariya upheld the one-year prison sentence against Egyptian opposition figure Ahmed El-Tantawy and 21 members of his presidential campaign in the case widely known as the “Popular Endorsement Forms Case.” The ruling also confirmed El-Tantawy’s five-year ban from running in parliamentary elections.
The original verdict, issued by the Court of First Instance, sentenced El-Tantawy and his campaign manager, Mohamed Abou El-Diar, to one year in prison with hard labor. The court also ordered the imprisonment of 21 campaign members with hard labor and detained El-Tantawy in the courtroom at the start of the hearing.
The case (No. 16336 of 2023, El-Matariya Misdemeanor Court) centers on allegations of illegally printing and distributing election-related documents without authorization from the competent authority.
Prosecutors charged the defendants with conspiring to circulate official election papers and supplying, printing, and distributing endorsement forms without legal permission.
According to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), 145 people remain in pretrial detention for expressing political opinions or supporting a presidential candidate during the election period. These detainees are linked to 13 separate election-related cases, including 23 defendants referred to trial in the Popular Endorsement Forms Case.
During the presidential campaign, security forces arrested several supporters involved in collecting endorsement forms for El-Tantawy’s candidacy. The case includes dozens of defendants, among them former presidential candidate Ahmed El-Tantawy and his campaign manager Mohamed Abou El-Diar, who were referred to trial without prior notification and were reportedly not summoned for questioning by the Public Prosecution.
The referral to trial was based on Article 65 of Egypt’s Law on the Exercise of Political Rights, which criminalizes printing or distributing ballots or other election materials without authorization from the competent authority.
- Ahmed Mohamed Ramadan El-Tantawy
- Mohamed Mousa Abou El-Diar
- Ibrahim Nabih Ibrahim El-Saqqa
- Mohamed Kamal Ezzat Mostafa
- Mohamed Ismail Ahmed Fathallah
- Alaa Mahmoud Hassan Mohamed
- Ali Hussein Ali Roshdy
- Mahmoud El-Sayed Mostafa El-Rifi
- Rokaya Taha Ahmed Mostafa
- Ahmed Mohamed Abdel Aal
- Abdelrahman Khalaf Shehata Shehata
- Ali Saad Abdo
- Ahmed El-Sayed Mohamed
- Ahmed Hamdy Yasser Mohamed
- Hager Haggag Desouky Ali
- Ahmed Mostafa Mostafa Abdel Salam
- Mohamed Mohamed Hassan El-Shatouri
- Ahmed Mohamed Hassan Mady
- Sayed Mohamed Hassan Abdullah El-Sherei
- Osama Fawzy Abdelkader Abdelbaqi
- Mahmoud Abdelalim Abdel Sattar
- Abdullah Abdel Aal Ismail Mohamed
- Milad Sobhy Ghaly (Fugitive outside the country)
The first hearing took place on November 7, 2023. On January 9, 2024, the court adjourned the case to February 6, 2024, for closing arguments.
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms renewed its call for the release of those detained in the case, arguing that their only action was peacefully expressing their political views and supporting a presidential candidate, rights protected under the Egyptian Constitution and the law.
