By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: The campaign supporting former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to run for president accused the regime of inciting lawsuits against ElBaradei and other campaign leaders, thus disturbing public peace and inciting civil disobedience.
“This is clear evidence that the strategy of the regime in the coming period is to strike indirect blows [to the opposition] through mediators like it did in the last parliamentary elections when it used thugs and outlaws against the people,” said a statement issued by the campaign on Tuesday.
General Coordinator of the Popular Coalition to Support Gamal Mubarak as President, Magdy El-Kurdy, along with supporters from 13 different governorates, filed 14 lawsuits against ElBaradei on Tuesday.
“We refuse any attempts to slander ElBaradei or our campaign,” general coordinator of the campaign supporting ElBaradei, Mustafa Al-Naggar, told Daily News Egypt.
According to Al-Nagagar, ElBaradei was also accused of slandering Egypt’s reputation abroad.
However, El-Kurdy denied the accusations. “We have no relation with the Egyptian government or the ruling National Democratic Party,” he told Daily News Egypt.
El-Kurdy added that he and his supporters felt it was their civic duty to file lawsuits against ElBaradei and his supporters to protect Egypt’s future.
“If there’s civil disobedience everyone will lose including the opposition and the government,” El-Kurdy said. “And the biggest loser will be the [Egyptian] people,”
“Political disputes should be resolved through dialogue not through violence,” El-Kurdy added.
Lawyer Marwa Hodhod, coordinator of a separate campaign supporting Gamal Mubarak as the next president of Egypt, titled “Sotak Amana,” said the lawsuits were uncalled for and groundless.
“President Mubarak and government authorities are capable of protecting the country and dealing with civil disobedience,” Hodhod told Daily News Egypt.
“The president gives people the freedom to express themselves without any restrictions and that’s what ElBaradei did,” Hohod added.
Al-Naggar, however, said, “These are pathetic attempts by the regime to silence the opposition, but the people are well aware of what’s happening and this will only increase the people’s support to our campaign.”
El-Kurdy’s campaign was first launched in July, amid wide criticism from opposition groups accusing the NDP of masterminding the campaign.
El-Kurdy denied the accusations saying, “I see in Gamal Mubarak what others see in ElBaradei, I believe he can bring change [to Egypt].”
“We all dream of change but our methods are different and more rational than ElBaradei’s methods,” he added.
On Sunday, a religious group in Giza, who brand themselves as the Supporters of Mohamed’s Sunna, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling for the death of ElBaradei for stirring sedition and inciting civil disobedience against the government.
“We are completely against this bizarre fatwa,” El-Kurdy said.
ElBaradei’s campaign in turn issued a statement on Sunday condemning the fatwa and accusing the group of stirring sedition and calling for the death of all those who oppose them.
“If loving one’s country and dreaming for a better tomorrow is worth being killed for then [so be it],” the statement read.
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights also issued a statement condemning the fatwa describing it as “very dangerous” and called on the prosecutor general to investigate the matter.
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights also issued a statement condemning the fatwa describing it as “very dangerous” and called on the General Prosecutor to investigate the matter.
Al-Naggar said that his campaign has received information that the government will tighten its grip over the opposition before the presidential elections in 2011.
“[The government] will viscously enforce further restrictions on opposition groups and the media, even more than what took place in the parliamentary elections,” Al-Naggar said.
The NDP swept the polls in November’s PA elections winning 420 seats out of 508, amid wide accusations of fraud and vote-rigging.
