CAIRO: The April 6 Youth Movement welcomed an investigation into the assets of its leading members and other political activists, the group said in a statement late Tuesday.
“We don’t own any property…let them investigate all they want,’ Mohamed Adel, member of the movement’s political bureau, told Daily News Egypt.
Adel added that he will apply for government housing for youth on Thursday because he can’t afford to buy an apartment to get married in.
Local media reported Tuesday that Mohamed Nabih, the vice chairman of the New Urban Communities for Real Estate and Commercial Affairs Sector had made an official written request to investigate property owned by some political activists.
The list of political activists attached to the letter, included Adel, Ahmed Maher, the general coordinator of the Movement as well as political activists and former April 6 members Asmaa Mahfouz and Israa Abdel Fattah.
Nabih told Ahram Online that these were routine investigations that indicated nothing specific, adding that “half the country” is investigated this way.
The government had said earlier that it had initiated a probe into the funding of civil society groups.
Activists condemned the decision, calling it a witch hunt targeting critics of the ruling army council rather than a genuine investigation.
Adel believes that it is an attempt to smear the reputation of the movement and other political activists by accusing them of serving a foreign agenda using foreign funds.
“They couldn’t prove anything on us until now and they’re scraping for any piece of evidence,” he said.
Maher demanded that the findings of this investigation be made public, saying that this step would disprove the rumors that have been circulating against the movement recently.
In July, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) issued a statement singling out the April 6 Youth Movement, and raising suspicion over its sources of funding and whether it serves any “foreign agendas.”
As a reaction, members of the group voluntarily demanded that the prosecutor general start an official investigation into these allegations.
Abdel Fatah, now the media director of the Egyptian Democratic Academy, said she was pleased with the recent investigation, emphasizing that the results should be announced to the public.
However, she added that assets belonging to the heads of municipal councils and former members of the policies committee of the disbanded National Democratic Party should also be investigated.
“These corrupt people haven’t been investigated after January 25 and they’re [acting] … as if nothing happened,” Abdel Fatah told DNE.
“[They should be] investigated as well, and the findings of the investigations will show which of us is corrupt.”
