Lawsuit demands Helbawi be included on terrorist list

CAIRO – 2 May 2018: Egyptian lawyer Samir Sabry filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to Attorney General Nabil Sadek to include Kamal Al-Helbawi, former spokesperson of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and a member of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), on the terror list.

Sabry said that, over the last few days, Helbawi has demanded that the Egyptian government reconcile with the Muslim Brotherhood and described members of the Brotherhood, especially its founder Hassan al-Banna, as the greatest personalities on the 20th century.

Helbawi, who is based in London, revealed that the youth of the April 6 Movement coordinated with him to support the initiative, according to the lawsuit.

It is worth mentioning that the Egyptian government, political parties and society, categorically refused the initiative.

On April 28, Helbawi made a TV appearance on the Turkish-based, MB-affiliated television channel Mekameleen, during which he called for a reconciliation initiative with the Brotherhood.

Helbawi contacted the channel via Skype from London and announced his initiative, which would commence by forming a council of elders of Arab and Egyptian experts and renowned figures.



Helbawi was raised in a Muslim Brotherhood community. He is the founder of the Muslim Council of Britain, secretary-general of the Islamic Unity Forum in Europe and was the advisor to the Egyptian Salvation Front, which got dissolved after the Jan. 25 Revolution.

The Muslim Council of Britain is a U.K. umbrella organization comprised largely of Muslim Brotherhood organizations.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat on Jul. 26, 2013, Helbawi said that, “The army is the only institution capable of maintaining law and order in Egypt.”

Helbawi is the former official spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West. He resigned from the organization to support dissent member of the Brotherhood Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, who got sacked when he announced his candidacy.

Aboul Fotouh was the favored Egyptian presidential candidate of Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Last month, the names of Aboul Fotouh and 15 others were added to the terror list after a court decision that found them to be members of the Brotherhood and thus rendering their party, the Strong Egypt Party which Aboul Fotouh heads, as a political arm of the terrorist organization.

As part of Egypt’s efforts to fight terrorism, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi issued a law in 2015 that gives a broad definition of terrorist entities and the sentences against them.

The law defines terrorist entities as groups or individuals that, "through any means inside or outside the country, seek to call for the disabling of laws, or to prevent state institutions or public authorities from functioning, or seek to attack the personal liberty of citizens or other freedoms and rights granted to citizens by the law and constitution, or to harm the national unity and social peace."

Additional reporting by Mohamed Zain