After one of its leaders was given a six-month prison sentence, the largest liberal opposition political movement in Egypt announced it will not put out a candidate for the presidential election scheduled for next year.
According to the Free Current coalition, Hisham Kassem had considered running for president. Both defamation and verbally abusing a police officer were judged to be crimes against him.
His backers claim the accusations were made for political reasons.
Although he has not yet done so, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is expected to declare his candidature for a third term.
Ahmed al-Tantawi, the sole candidate to date to officially declare his candidature, claimed that the security forces have been harassing his team more frequently.