Egypt's Al-Wafd Party march to protest attack on HQ
Ahram Online, Monday 17 Dec 2012
One of Egypt's oldest liberal parties, Al Wafd, plans a march to denounce an attack on their headquarters, allegedly by Islamist Salafist


Journalists and members of the liberal Al Wafd Party plan to march on Monday to the journalists' syndicate to protest the recent attack on the party's main office in Dokki, in central Cairo.

The march will start at party headquarters, which was attacked on Saturday allegedly by supporters of prominent Salafist preacher and former presidential candidate, Hazem Abu-Ismail.

According to eyewitnesses the attackers also broke into the building and beat up journalists and Al Wafd members.

Abu-Ismail, however, vehemently denied that his supporters had attacked Al Wafd Party headquarters.

"I know nothing about any riots or any attempts to lay siege on any headquarters. Blaming me for this is a media farce. It's obvious that the media is targeting me," the one-time presidential hopeful declared on his Facebook page.

The Journalists' Syndicate Council, for their part, has filed a complaint with the prosecutor-general against Abu-Ismail, the ministry of interior and president Mohamed Morsi.

On the same night Abu-Ismail supporters allegedly threatened to lay seige to the nearby Egyptian Popular Current offices, accusing the movement's members of involvement in an alleged attack on Islamist preacher Sheikh Mahalawy in Alexandria.

Reports on Sunday claim Abu-Ismail supporters continuously protesting since 7 December at Media City in 6 October City, a Cairo suburb for "the purging of biased media" also allegedly planned to head to the Dokki police station to "purge the ministry of interior."

On Sunday, however, the Salafist leader declared on his official Facebook page that neither he nor his supporters would head to the police station – nor any other official institution for that matter – so as to not add to the political turbulence in Egypt.

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