The fallout from the NGO foreign funding case continues to occupy most of today’s papers, alongside preparations for the impending presidential election, government confidence votes and MP nose jobs.
State daily Al-Akhbar meanwhile chooses to lead with the headline, “The army’s gift to those with a limited income and young people: two housing projects in Helwan and Borg al-Arab.”
Al-Akhbar columnist Elham Abdel Fatah writes about “iron lady” Fayza Abouelnaga, who many regard as the architect behind the NGO case, in which 43 NGO workers face criminal charges for allegedly working for organizations funded by foreign money. Abdel Fatah says the planning and international cooperation minister “raised all our heads and protected the dignity of Egypt’s young people.”
State mouthpiece Al-Ahram leads with an announcement by People’s Assembly Speaker Saad al-Katatny. Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri will appear in the assembly Sunday to answer questions about the lifting of a travel ban on foreigners accused in the NGO case who flew out of Egypt last week.
The paper quotes General Taher Abdallah, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, as saying the controversial decision to lift the travel ban — which has raised strong criticism domestically — “was made only by the judiciary.”
Inside on page five, Al-Ahram has a full-page spread on the topic, including a profile of the judge who will hear the case following the resignation of Mohamed Mahmoud Shoukry, the previous judge hearing it.
It also quotes probable presidential candidate Mohamed Selim al-Awa as saying that Ganzouri is “not responsible” for the lifting of the travel ban and that the judiciary has three ways of restoring its dignity: by either clearing the detainees of all charges, ordering that the American defendants be returned to Egyptian custody, or refusing to hear the case because of the “interference” by court of appeal head Abdel Moez Ibrahim.
Freedom and Justice, the mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party of the same name, lashes out at suggestions made by US Senator John McCain that the Brotherhood played a part in lifting the travel ban.
Privately owned Al-Tahrir leads with “four surprises” in the NGO case. First, Shoukry, the former judge hearing it, should not have been assigned the case because it did not fall within his jurisdiction. Second, Shoukry was previously a member of Abdel Moez Ibrahim’s judicial team, which Al-Tahrir says discredits Ibrahim’s claims that Shoukry resigned because it was discovered his son works in a law firm that deals with the US Embassy in Cairo. Third, Shoukry’s two colleagues also hearing the case insisted on resigning from it. And finally, 12 American defendants in the case left the country before the travel ban was lifted.
State daily Al-Gomhurriya has a surprisingly strong attack on the SCAF from columnist Alaa Mohamed. The column says what happened in the NGO case is not a surprise to anyone who has followed the SCAF’s political performance in Egypt since the revolution. He said, “playing with the big boys is different than playing with school and university kids … and dealing with thugs and vendors in Tahrir Square," referring to the SCAF's willingness to confront political forces in Egypt, but not the American government.
MP Helmy al-Gazzar is quoted in Freedom and Justice as calling the statements “an early media attack aimed at defaming the image of the Brotherhood and the FJP.”
According to Gazzar, the US is “discomforted” by the Brotherhood’s ascent to power.
Freedom and Justice also reports that the People’s Assembly's Defense, National Security and Mobilization Committee has issued “stinging criticism” of the Interior Ministry after the ministry ignored requests from the assembly at the start of this month to restructure, following the Port Said Stadium violence in early February.
According to the committee, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim and other senior ministry figures are “incapable” of restructuring it.
State daily Al-Ahram reports that the attorney general has called for MP Anwar al-Baklimy's parliamentary immunity to be lifted following the revelation that the former Nour Party member pretended he was the victim of a robbery, when in fact he underwent plastic surgery on his nose.
Al-Tahrir has more fun with the story about the “scandal of the Nour MP and the plastic surgeon,” with a front-page picture of Baklimy and his pre-surgery face being restrained in Parliament, accompanied by the headline, “Grab my nose, please.”
Egypt’s papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
Al-Nour: Official paper of the Salafi Nour Party
