(Photo courtesy of Tamrod Facebook Page)
A report was filed on Wednesday to the Supreme State Security Prosecution accusing the Tamarod campaign of attempting to overthrow the regime.
Tamarod, or “Rebellion”, is a petition campaign that was launched in late April to gather signatures to withdraw confidence from President Mohamed Morsi’s leadership.
Lawyer Ashraf Nagui filed the report against campaign spokesperson Mahmoud Badr alongside all known campaign members. The report was also filed against a number of political figures supporting the campaign, including Al-Tayar Al-Sha’aby founder Hamdeen Sabahy, Al-Dostour Party founder Mohamed ElBaradei, 6 April Youth Movement founder Ahmed Maher and “all other opposition leaders who support the campaign and publicise it”.
The report accused the campaign members and opposition leaders of a long list of crimes, including establishing and joining a group which aims to stall the constitution, preventing the presidency from performing its duties, harming national unity, destroying the state system, inciting the overthrow of the regime, spreading false rumours about the country’s internal affairs and disturbing general security. The report demands the trial of the accused according to Egypt’s Penal Code.
In response to the report, Tamarod released a statement stressing it will not retract regardless of the threats it receives.
“Tamarod campaign is that of all Egyptians,” the statement read. “Even if we end up losing our lives, it will be a simple price for completing our revolution.”
The statement also expressed its surprise at the extent the ruling government was “terrorising” the campaign and the people supporting it, stating that the report proves Morsi’s regime is reaching its end. The Tamarod statement also accused Nagui of being affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“I am not a Brotherhood member,” Nagui said. “I have no relation to Brotherhood leaders. I just saw a string of crimes being committed and decided to fulfil my duty by reporting them.”
Nagui stated that the Penal Code is an “oppressive law created by the former regime to hold an iron fist over the country”. He nevertheless added that as long as the Penal Code remains, it should be respected and followed.
An investigation into the report was scheduled for Thursday. Nagui requested postponing the investigation to avoid problems.
“I received several threats since filing the report,” he said. “Some included death threats … I prefer the investigation date is confidential to avoid the implementation of such threats.”
He refused to disclose the date of the investigation. Tamarod members were unavailable for further comments on the alleged threats.
Tamarod was launched two weeks ago by members of Kefaya movement. The campaign is aims to collect 15 million signatures before 30 June, the day that will mark Morsi’s one year anniversary in power. It is also calling for early presidential elections.
On Sunday, the campaign announced it had collected 2,029,592 signatures throughout Egypt.
Tamarod members were recently detained while distributing campaign applications at least three times. On Saturday, at least three campaign members were arrested outside Sohag University; on Sunday, four more members were shortly held at Cairo University’s campus security office after distributing applications; and on Wednesday, six members of the Tamarod campaign were detained by campus security while distributing campaign applications at the University of Zagazig.
