The Ministry of Interior said Wednesday that a “Muslim Brotherhood member” who was arrested on charges of sabotaging the elections through threatening judges is a court employee.
The media office of the ministry said the defendant sent texts threatening the judges and warning them of participating in the elections.
The man, named Ayman Al-Adly, worked in the Kafr Al-Sheikh court. According to the investigations, “he used his position to gather information on the judges and their contact information and delivered them to another Brotherhood member named Abdel Rahman Tolba”.
Along with others, he sent text messages to judges warning them against participating in the elections, the media office told Daily News Egypt. They were arrested Tuesday, in possession of digital storage disks containing information about voters, and “Brotherhood papers”.
The Egyptian judiciary is the main supervising authority for the ongoing parliamentary elections, where hundreds of judges are deployed in all governorates.
Egypt’s military has provided secure transportation for judges on military airplanes.
On the first day of the elections, one judge died in a car accident in Assiut which caused delay and disturbance outside the polling station.
The recent involvement of the Egyptian judiciary in the political scene in Egypt, amid accusations by opposition and militant groups of “politicised verdicts” has made judges a target for militants.
Last May, three judges were killed in an attack on the Al-Arish-Rafah international road. “State of Sinai” militant group, formerly known as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, claimed the attack and posted videos of the assault.
