Lawyer calls Egypt’s Sisi ‘traitor’ over islands transfer to Saudis

‘A prominent Egyptian rights lawyer has called President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi a “traitor” over his government’s controversial decision to cede sovereignty of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, Egypt’s top benefactor.
Khaled Ali, 45, who also ran in Egypt’s 2012 presidential election, made the comment during a meeting of opposition parties on Sunday to condemn the ongoing review of last year agreement, which handed over the two uninhabited islands Tiran and Sanafir to the Arab kingdom.
“The president is a traitor and the prime minister is a traitor,” said Ali in his address before the meeting, a video of which was posted on social media on Monday. “Whoever will be content to lower the Egyptian flag on Tiran and Sanafir and raise the Saudi flag in its place is a traitor,” he added.
Ali’s remarks could now bring legal consequences for him over publicly insulting the president, and might put him on a bumpy road of running for Egypt’s 2018 presidential election, in which he is most likely to stand as a strong rival to Sisi.’
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