Egypt MP 'has sex tapes leaked' after opposing Sisi president-for-life bid

Egypt MP 'has sex tapes leaked' after opposing Sisi president-for-life bid
Opposition MP Khaled Youssef is suffering a sex scandal but he says is engineered by the Egyptian authorities.
2 min read
13 February, 2019
The filmmaker and opposition MP criticised the 'Pharaoh motion' [AFP]

An Egyptian MP says the regime has engineered a sex scandal to punish him after he opposed President Abd al-Fattah el-Sisi's bid to extend his term in office.

Khaled Youssef says he is suffering a "moral assassination campaign" after two explicit videos in which he allegedly appears were leaked online.

"The Egyptian people did not revolt twice to nationalise all powers and put them in one man's hand - no matter how great that man is - or to give him the right to rule until 2034," Youssef wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.

He accused the Egyptian authorities of leaking the videos on Tuesday to punish him for his opposition to what has been dubbed the "Pharaoh motion".

"I know that my continued objection to the constitutional amendments will bring me troubles, possibly to the extent of jail on trumped-up charges," Youssef told BBC Arabic.

"But I've said before that I am willing to pay the price and face repercussions, no matter how harsh they may be."

Egypt's Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek requested that the Ministry of Information Technology ban websites including sexual content or "materials that violate public manners" following the release of the videos, reported al-Ahram.

The three women allegedly involved in the videos - two actors and a businesswoman - have been arrested and accused of prostitution and "inciting debauchery and obscenity".

The lawyers of the women have denied the charges. Egyptian media have said the women claimed to have been married to Youssef at the time of the videos' recording.

Youssef, himself a filmmaker, supported the 2011 revolution against former President Hosni Mubarak, but took an anti-Muslim Brotherhood stance and backed Sisi's military coup which ousted President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. He has since joined an opposition alliance.

Fellow opposition MP Haitham al-Hariri was also subject to a leak after he said the proposed constitutional changes would lead to an "authoritarian, despotic regime".

A pro-regime lawyer filed a lawsuit on Sunday against Hariri, accusing him of "sexual harassment via telephone" after a phone call between the MP and a woman who is reportedly his office manager was leaked.