Head of Egypt's military judiciary Adel El-Morsi on Wednesday announced that over 50,000 legal complaints had been lodged against leftist MP Ziad El-Eleimi over recent statements by the latter that were widely perceived as insulting to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt's ruling military council.

El-Morsi also said Wednesday that military prosecutors would not take any legal measures against El-Eleimi if parliament's disciplinary committee – to which El-Eleimi was referred last week – took its own steps to penalise the MP.

El-Eleimi, a founder of the liberal Egyptian Social Democratic Party, was denounced in parliament for comments he made on 18 February in which he used an Egyptian proverb that analogously compared Tantawi to a donkey.

After refusing to apologise for the remarks, the MP on Sunday was placed under parliamentary investigation.

During the investigation, El-Eleimi demanded that his contentious statement be submitted to the Arabic Language Institute for interpretation.

In a statement to independent daily Al-Badil on Wednesday, institute director Khaled Mostafa said the proverb in question should not be considered an insult.