President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (R) and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi salute the members of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party in Ankara, Turkey. (Photo: Turkish Prime Minister’s Press Service via AP)
Citing a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, MEMO reported that the Egyptian Court of Urgent Matters in the coastal city of Alexandria had scheduled the first hearing in the case for Feb. 24.
The report says a lawyer named Tarek Mahmoud filed the lawsuit with the court, claiming that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had supported the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) movement.
Egypt’s former military head and current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ousted former President Mohamed Morsi a year after Morsi came to power in a free vote in July 2013. Turkey had forged a close alliance with Morsi and strongly criticized the military coup in Egypt that toppled the Morsi government.
The MB, which Morsi is part of, was declared a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government in December 2013.
The source also said that the lawyer filing the case further claimed that Turkey was the main source of arms entering Egypt and ending up in the hands of Muslim Brotherhood members.
Mahmoud also pointed out that Turkey hosted several meetings with members of the MB and hosts satellite channels owned by some of the MB leaders.
Since the ouster of Morsi, Turkish authorities, including President Erdoğan, have been lashing out at the Sisi administration and accusing the international community of “hypocrisy” for not taking a firm stance against someone who came to power by military coup.
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