Physical and verbal attacks allegedly perpetrated by Islamists against Hamdy al-Fakhrany, vice president of the Democratic Front Party, in front of the State Council yesterday are tantamount to terrorism and were designed to detract attention from the president’s poor performance, the party said in a statement on Wednesday.

Fakhrany accused President Mohamed Morsy’s supporters of assaulting him, tearing his clothes apart and shouting insults at him when leaving the State Council yesterday after the administrative court heard his lawsuit against the reinstatement of the People’s Assembly. He has filed a police report against his alleged attackers.

The attack was “an unacceptable and condemnable act, and must not pass without investigation, so as not to turn society into chaos. This must not be the Islamists’ way of dealing with those who disagree with them,” the statement claimed.

The Democratic Front Party stressed its rejection of a divided and chaotic state brought about because of decisions made by an inexperienced president. It condemned threats, assaults on citizens and the spreading of fear across the country, all of which the party attributes to extremist forces that seek to protect the president and his reputation at any cost.

The party stressed that Fakhrany had stood up against the former regime and had filed many cases against corruption in former President Hosni Mubarak’s government.

Fakhrany was a member of the dissolved People's Assembly and was affected by the military’s council decree to disband the assembly, but he would put the higher interest of the nation above his own by choosing to respect the decisions of the court, the party claimed in its statement.