Egypt

Update: Abouel Fotouh released from hospital after highway assault

Presidential hopeful Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh was in good health and returned home from the hospital Friday, a source from his presidential campaign said, after being assaulted and robbed on the ring road outside Cairo the evening before.

Abouel Fotouh was attacked at around 11 pm Thursday evening on the ring road outside Cairo, on his way home from an election rally in Monufiya Governorate, family sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Friday. 

Three masked men in a Mitsubishi vehicle stopped Abouel Fotouh's car and assaulted his driver. When Abouel Fotouh tried to stop them, one of the assailants struck him on the back of his head with an automatic rifle and stole his car, leaving him, his driver and his secretary on the road, sources from Abouel Fotouh's presidential campaign told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The presidential aspirant was transferred to the New Cairo Hospital in the Fifth Settlement.

Healthy Ministry Undersecretary Hisham Shiha said Friday that Abouel Fotouh will need to rest another 48 hours before returning to his normal activities. He said tests on Abouel Fotouh showed no broken bones or other medical problems.

Abouel Fotouh's dirver and secretary were also taken to the hospital for cuts and bruises they suffered during the robbery. Shiha said they would leave the hospital along with Abouel Fotouh.

Hamdeen Sabbahi, another presidential hopeful, visited Abouel Fotouh in the hospital Friday morning. He wrote on his Twitter account afterward, "Best wishes for a speedy recovery to my dear friend Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh. And the immediate arrest of the perpetrators and finding out their real motives is required."

Former International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei, who pulled out of the running for president last month, held the ruling military council responsible for the robbery.

"The military junta and the government are unable to protect a prominent presidential candidate, let alone provide security in the country," he wrote on Twitter. "They are the problem, not the solution."

The attack occurred two weeks before registration is set to begin for the presidential election. The military council in charge of governing the country in the transitional period plans to hand over power to a new head of state by the end of June.

Abouel Fotouh was expelled from the Muslim Brotherhood, whose party comprises the largest bloc in the People's Assembly, when he decided to run, thus defying the group's decision not to field a presidential candidate.

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