El-Sisi: ´´Muslim Brotherhood will not return if I am elected´´

Poster of Abdel-Fatah el-Sisi with his interviewers, Ibrahim Eissa of ONTV and Lamis El-Hadidi of CBC. The interview was planned for 4 May, but was postponed by one day.


Egypt's ex-army chief and leading presidential candidate Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Monday the Muslim Brotherhood movement of deposed leader Mohamed Morsi was "finished" in Egypt and would not return if he was elected.
Following the Sisi-led army ouster of Morsi in July, the Brotherhood has been banned, its leaders arrested and more than 1,400 people, mostly Islamist backers of Morsi, killed in protest clashes.
"I did not finish it, you Egyptians finished it," Sisi said in his first television interview since announcing his candidacy when asked if the Brotherhood was "finished." Asked whether the Brotherhood would cease to exist if he should gain the presidency, the former field marshal - dressed in a suit - answered: "Yes. That's right." In his first interview with Egyptian TV, he added that two assassination plots against him had been uncovered. But added: "I believe in fate, I am not afraid."

He did not provide details of who was behind the alleged plots or how advanced they were.
Mr Sisi also denied being the candidate of the army, saying "the army would not have a role in ruling Egypt", and he defended a controversial new law that puts severe restrictions on the right to protest.
A second part of the interview is due to be broadcast on Tuesday.


An Egyptian court on Tuesday banned the leaders of former president Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party from running in any coming elections, the court judge said.
Judge Karim Hazem did not specify the number, names or titles of the politicians who would be prevented from running in coming elections. Mubarak's party was dissolved three years ago following an uprising that ended his rule.
The case was brought to court a few months ago by an Egyptian lawyer. Judicial sources said the judge was unable to name the officials that the ruling would be applied to and left that to the elections committee to do that.