By Mennatallah Fouad Youssef
CAIRO: The Salafi Al-Nour Party said Monday that MP Anwar El-Belkemy resigned from the party and the People’s Assembly after investigations revealed he had falsely claimed to have been attacked, while he had undergone surgery, believed to be a nose job.
The party said in a statement on its Facebook page that some of its members visited El-Belkemy at the Sheikh Zayed Hospital and their investigations proved his earlier statements were false.
“On the recommendation of Al-Nour Party’s top body, MP El-Belkemy officially apologized to the doctors of the Salma hospital [where he initially underwent plastic surgery], Al-Nour Party, to members of parliament, and the security and media institutions, for the disturbance he caused,” the statement read.
The MP also resigned from the party and the People’s Assembly, in accordance with the party bylaws, according to the statement.
The resignation from the party was announced the night before when spokesman Nader Bakkar told several TV stations that El-Belkemy’s claims contradicted the evidence provided by the Salma Hospital.
The MP had claimed that five masked men on the Cairo-Alexandria Highway had assaulted him and stole about LE 100,000. When a doctor said that El-Belkemy’s bandages were a result of a nose job, not an attack, the MP denied.
Documents reportedly provided by the Salma Hospital to investigative authorities showed that El-Belkemy was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 27 for a nose job and paid the operation fees.
The hospital’s manager added that the MP insisted on leaving the hospital on the same day.
El-Belkemy had claimed he was admitted to the Sheikh Zayed Hospital following the alleged attack.
When contacted by Daily News Egypt, the Sheikh Zayed Hospital refused to comment while the prosecution was still investigating the case.
During a phone call to Amr Adeeb’s talk show Sunday night, Bakkar stated that along with the resignation, Al-Nour Party drafted a resignation letter to be addressed to Parliament Speaker Saad Al-Katatny, which Al-Belkemy signed.
The resignation would be up to discussion at the People’s Assembly’s following session, Bakkar said.
“We apologize to the people on behalf of the actions of the member, also to the authorities, and the media. The MP was dismissed due to his actions of fraud which we don’t accept. Any person who commits something wrong should take responsibility and face its consequences. This is a culture that we hope would be common in Egypt,” Bakkar said.
The prosecution is yet to question El-Belkemy, whose legal immunity has to first be removed by parliament.
Al-Nour Party has not yet decided whether it will field another candidate for the expected elections in El-Belkemy’s constituency.
