CAIRO: Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency reported Sunday that an investigations judge summoned a number of prominent politicians and activists for questioning related to their involvement in funding protesters and inciting them to attack army and police forces during the deadly Cabinet clashes in December.
MENA said that the judge summoned presidential hopeful Ayman Nour, architect and political player Mamdouh Hamza, political activist Nawara Negm, the Imam of Omar Makram Mosque Mazhar Shahin and spokesman of the April 6 Youth Movement’s Democratic Front Tarek El-Khouly.
However, activists denied receiving any official summons, but say that they are not surprised by the news.
"I have not received any letter from the investigations judge until now, but there are confirmed news reports that I have been summoned," Nour told Daily News Egypt Sunday.
"On December 20, a member of the ruling military council accused me in public of funding the protesters, so I filed a complaint against the council, accusing it of spreading false news, but it seems that they want to show that it is not false news," he said.
Negm reiterated on her Twitter account Nour’s denial of not receiving any official notification until now.
Hamza wrote on his Twitter account that the news did not surprise him. He cited the December issue of state-owned October magazine, which carried a photograph of him alongside other revolutionaries, referring to them as "inciters."
"A former military general filed a complaint against me, accusing me of incitement during the Cabinet clashes and of burning the Scientific Complex. He even called for my execution," Hamza said.
"I was not officially notified about the interrogation. I just knew about it from the media, but frankly I don’t see any reason why I should be summoned," he wrote.
