CAIRO: The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) said on Tuesday that it will not take any legal action against Social Democratic Party MP Ziad El-Eleimy for using offensive language outside of parliament to refer to the head of SCAF Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, in recognition of a resolution adopted internally by the People’ Assembly (PA).
The PA had referred El-Eleimy to a disciplinary committee on Sunday when he refused to apologize outright for his remarks. A show of hands also showed that MPs were dissatisfied with an apology presented in writing by El-Eleimy in response to demands that he apologize to Tantawi and popular Salafi preacher Sheikh Mohamed Hassan.
El-Eleimy said Monday that he has no reservations about apologizing for any wrongdoing, upon the request of his fellow MPs and the Egyptian people.
SCAF said in a letter to the PA Tuesday that El-Eleimy had committed a full-fledged crime that is punishable by law.
"The crime involves interference in the work of the judiciary, which is prohibited by law, disregarding the report of the PA’s fact-finding committee on the Port Said events and an attempt to drive a wedge between the army and the people," said an official letter by SCAF that was read out by PA speaker Saad El-Katatni.
The letter pointed out that the PA gives MPs immunity to express their opinion, as long as this opinion is not slanderous or insulting.
During a rally in Port Said on Friday where El-Eleimy accused SCAF of political responsibility for football violence that left 71 dead on Feb. 1, the MP used a popular Egyptian idiom which critiques the systematic tendency to scapegoat lower-ranking officials, while leaving the real perpetrators unpunished, namely SCAF and its leader.
"[The people] let the donkey go but grabbed on to the saddle," Eleimy had said.
In a TV interview on Saturday, El-Eleimy said he used the idiom because it was common among Egyptians and easy to understand, while stressing that he wasn’t indicating that the head of SCAF was a “donkey.”
SCAF expressed its appreciation to the PA’s rejection of the young MP’s insult to the head of the military council.
The special PA committee is expected to question El-Eleimy on Wednesday on the incident and might refer him to the PA’s ethics committee.
SCAF added that it did not dominate the transitional period and that it is keen on transferring power to an elected authority that reflects the free will of the people in order to achieve the objectives of the January 25 revolution.
