Salafi leader Hazem Salah Abu Ismail’s sentence of one year in prison for insulting the police was canceled Wednesday by the same judges who handed down the initial ruling.
Before appealing, the jailed preacher was sentenced in September 2014 by the Giza Criminal Court for slander and libel, for having criticized and threatened former Minister of Interior Ahmed Gamal el-Din and the police for being “selective.” The police had also accused the Hazemoun, Abu Ismail’s followers, of attacking the headquarters of Wafd party.
A video of him circulated in December 2012 outside the Dokki police station, labeling Gamal el-Din and the police as “traitors” and “scum,” yelling that he would “teach them a lesson” and “cleanse” the police. Abu Ismail has said the video is fabricated.
Gamal el-Din was fired Jan. 5, 2013, weeks after the confrontations with Hazemoun; the police was accused by the regime of not protecting the Ittihadeya presidential palace in December 2012 during deadly clashes between Morsi’s opponents and supporters.
Abu Ismail, a hardliner who garnered massive support from Islamists after the January 25 Revolution in 2011, was sentenced to seven years in prison in April 2013 for concealing that his mother also held American citizenship. The sentence was upheld in April 2014.
Egyptians with a parent who holds any other nationality than Egyptian may not run for the presidency; Abu Ismail garnered 151,000 signatures on a petition to allow him to run for president in 2012, while only 30,000 are required.
Abu Ismail is also standing trial for inciting the Hazemoun to raid the prosecution’s headquarters in Nasr City in December 2012.
