Colonel gets 6 years for wanting to run for prez

CAIRO — An Egyptian military court on Tuesday sentenced an army colonel to six years in prison after he announced his intention to run against President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in next year’s elections, his defence lawyer said.

Col. Ahmed Konsowa was convicted of violating military regulations banning political activism by active duty officers, his lawyer, Asaad Heikal, said.

Konsowa, 42, was detained following his Dec. 2 announcement he would run against el-Sissi, himself a general-turned-president who took office in 2014, a year after he led the military’s ouster of freely elected Islamist president Mohammed Morsi. Egypt’s presidential elections are due early next year.

El-Sissi, who quit the army before his successful run for president in 2014, is virtually certain to run for and win a second four-year term, although he has yet to make a formal announcement.

A prominent rights activist, Khaled Ali, has said he would also run. Hanging over his bid, however, is a September conviction for allegedly making an obscene hand gesture the day he won a court case in January against the government’s decision to transfer two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. Ali also received a suspended threemonth jail sentence. He has appealed the conviction.

If his conviction of alleged indecency is upheld, he could be disqualified from running.