Hazem Salah Abu Ismail is an Egyptian lawyer and SalafiIslamist politician. He has been described by The Economist as a "populist Salafist." In the aftermath of the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état, Abu Ismail was arrested on 5 July 2013. On 14 July 2013 Egypt's prosecutor general Hisham Barakat ordered Ismail's assets to be frozen. His detention was renewed on 17 July 2013 for 15 more days. Abu Ismail appeared in court on 18 November and stated: “If there is no real justice at the court hall, I will cede the defense.” The court adjourned the case to 21 November where it was again adjourned to 19 December 2013. He was sentenced to one year imprisonment on 20 January 2014 for insulting the judiciary.
Presidential candidacy
Abu Ismail applied to be a candidate for the Egyptian presidential election of May 2012. As of early April 2012, he was considered one of the front-runners, and enjoyed notable displays of popular support. In foreign policy, Abu Ismail is in favor of ending the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty and has spoken of Iran as a successful model of independence from the United States. His domestic agenda includes veiling women and segregating them from men in the workplace. On 4 April 2012, the New York Times reported that according to Californian government documents Abu Ismail's deceased mother held U.S. citizenship, which would make him ineligible for the presidency under the Egyptian constitution. He has denied this, stating that she only held a green card. On 5 April, the Interior Ministry confirmed his mother's U.S. citizenship, prompting rallies by thousands of his supporters. In response to a case taken by Abu Ismail, the administrative court ruled against the losing party, the Ministry of the Interior, to pay the expenses of litigation and ordered it to issue the would-be candidate with a document stating that his mother never had held any other citizenship rather than the Egyptian since the ministry couldn't prove otherwise. The electoral commission, whose decisions are immune from judicial review, nonetheless disqualified him on 14 April.
Controversies
In 2009 Al-Nas TV show hosted by himself, Abu Ismail calls for boycott of Pepsi, declared the "PEPSI" name is an abbreviation, and stands for "Pay Every Penny Saving Israel". In 2013, Abu Ismail was charged with forging official documents during his application to run for president. He was also charged with inciting murder and defamation of police officers. In 2014, Abu Ismail was jailed for insulting a judge and refusing to recognise the court during his trial for submitting forged papers to the election committee.
He had reportedly been in talks to form a party that would join in a political alliance with the recently formed Homeland Party; however, he instead formed the Nation Alliance in early March 2013.
