Hardline preacher Abu Ismail gets 5-year sentence for court siege

CAIRO – 5 May 2019: Hard line Egyptian preacher Hazem Salah Abu Ismail has been sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in besieging a court in Nasr City in 2012. Egypt’s top appeals court has upheld the verdict.

Abu Ismailis convicted of inciting and participating in violent demonstrations at the aforementioned court in northeast Cairo in December 2012 demanding the release of one of his supporters.

His supporters had been arrested in possession of an automatic weapon and threatening public security.

The hardline Salafist incited his supporters to block the court’s entrance, barring anyone from entering or exiting, including prosecutors who were inside. The defendants used threats and violence against the prosecutors to try to coerce them into releasing the supporter, the prosecution said.

Earlier in 2012, Abu Ismail was disqualified from the presidential race that eventually brought Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood to power in June that year.

Reports had emerged that Abu Ismail’s late mother held a US passport, meaning he was not eligible to run for the presidency.

Abu Ismail was arrested in July 2013, two days after Mursi was ousted following mass protests against his rule, and is currently serving a seven-year sentence for falsifying his candidacy application for the 2012 presidential race.