Egypt Live Blog

Presidential hopeful Hazem Salah Abu Ismail said late on Thursday that he got an official document from the Interior Ministry stating that his mother was not a dual Egyptian-American citizen and that she held only Egyptian citizenship.

Abu Ismail added in a videoclip published on his official page on Facebook that he submitted the document to the Presidential Elections Commission on Thursday.

He noted that head of the commission, Farouk Sultan, "received the certificate issued by the Interior Ministry while the commission was in session."

Abu Ismail said he asked the commission so send him a copy of the papers that the Interior Ministry had originally submitted claiming that his mother had American citizenship, but Sultan refused to provide Abu Ismail with a copy, saying "these were the instructions." Abu Ismail added that Sultan allowed him to look at the documents and that they were largely fraudulent.

Abu Ismail challenged the commission to "publish these papers, because they were just fraud."

He said that it was not part of the Presidential Elections Commission’s mandate to determine the nationality of his mother.

He said that the papers submitted to prove his mother was an American national were "American travel documents, a voting certificate, a certificate from a records bureau in Los Angeles, and others."

He considered the State Council Administrative Court ruling in his favor "a strong message to the US and Israel." He added: "They wanted to murder us, but God wanted something else."
 
Abu Ismail accused the media of "twisting the facts and manipulation." He said the media has 48 hours to apologize or "they deserve what would happen."

[Source: Al-Masry AL-Youm]

This video reportedly shows images from today's protest in Tahrir Square, in support of legislation that would deny Mubarak-era officials from running for Egypt's presidency.

The Islamist-dominated Egyptian parliament on Thursday passed a law banning top officials who served under Hosni Mubarak from becoming president, legislation that would prevent former Vice President Omar Suleiman from running if the measures is approved by Egypt's ruling military.

The law would also block the candidacy of anyone who served as a prime minister in the decade prior to Mubarak's removal from power, which would rule out his last premier, Ahmed Shafiq.

However, the measure did not include former ministers, meaning leading liberal contender Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister, would not be affected. [Source:Reuters]

Hosni Mubarak's former spy chief said he decided to run for president to prevent Islamists from turning Egypt into a "religious state," and warned that the country would be internationally isolated if one of them won the presidency.

Omar Suleiman, who also briefly served as Mubarak's vice president, said in an interview with the weekly El-Fagr newspaper published Thursday that the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood's fielding of a presidential candidate "horrified" Egyptians.

The Islamist group, which has emerged as Egypt's most powerful political bloc since last year's uprising, reversed an earlier decision not to field a candidate.

[Source: AP]