Hamdeen Sabahi

Hamdeen Sabahi (, ; born 5 July 1954) is an Egyptian politician and journalist. He is a former presidential candidate and currently the leader of the Egyptian Popular Current and a co-leader of the National Salvation Front.

An opposition activist during the Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak eras, Sabahi was jailed 17 times during their presidencies for political dissidence. He was an immediate supporter and participant of the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

In the 2014 presidential election he was one of just two candidates. He ran second with less than 4% of the vote. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was declared the winner after attracting 22 million of the nearly 23 million votes cast. Sisi was sworn into office as President of Egypt on 8 June 2014.

A well-known opposition figure, Sabahi ascribes to Nasserism and in 1996 he founded the Nasserist Karama (Dignity) Party. Sabahi ran as an independent and not as the Dignity Party's candidate. One of the few secular figures without any ties to the regime of Hosni Mubarak, Sabahi attracted the support of several leading Nasserists. Sabahi ran under the slogan "one of us" which highlights his strong ties with the working class and advocates his socialist aspirations. Sabahi also gained the support of prominent Egyptian figures including writer and political activist Alaa Al Aswany and director and film-writer Khaled Youssef.

Early life Sabahi was born in a small Nile Delta town in Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate called Baltim in 1954 to a father who was a fellah ("peasant"). His father had benefited from the land ownership reforms brought about after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. He was among some 1,500 other political activists jailed by Sadat's government in nationwide crackdown.

Political career Membership in the Nasserist Party Sabahi helped establish the Arab Democratic Nasserist Party (legalized in 1992), headed by Diaa al-Din Dawoud. Mubarak government allegedly sent out thugs to attack his supporters in what was relatively common practice by the ruling government during that period. He did not win in that election, although he won a significant number of votes and made it to the run-off.

In 1997 the Mubarak regime passed a law that stripped farmers of their right to own the land that they paid for and maintained, effectively bringing an end to the reforms of the Nasser era and undermining the tenancy rights of farmers. Sabahi was arrested for the third time and tortured in 1997 for vociferously opposing the law. He was charged "with inciting agricultural workers to stage an open-ended sit-in on their land in protest" against that law.

Role following the military coup In the aftermath of the military coup, defense minister General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi called for mass demonstrations on 26 July 2013 to grant his forces a "mandate" to crack down on "terrorism". While this announcement was rejected by Egyptian human rights groups and by many of the political movements that had initially supported the military coup, such as the revolutionary April 6 Youth Movement and the moderate Strong Egypt Party, Sabahi and his Popular Current movement sided with General Sisi and called on their supporters to participate in the demonstrations.

In August 2013, following a violent crackdown by security forces on a sit-in by supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi, in which hundreds of protesters were killed, Sabahi said in a telephone interview with Al-Hayat television that the national forces were behind the state apparatus to defeat terrorism: "We will stay hand in hand, the people, the army and the police."

In the interview, he also called for an emergency Arab summit to "support Egypt in the face of terrorism", saluted the position of the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait and the King of Saudi Arabia, and called for an invitation to the presidents of Russia and China to visit Egypt and support its position.

Sabahi has censured a court conviction sentencing Ahmed Maher, Mohammed Adel and Ahmed Douma to three years in prison and a fine of LE50,000 and maintains that Interim President Adly Mansour should issue these and other detained individuals a pardon.

2014 presidential campaign Sabahi officially announced his presidential bid for the 2014 Egyptian presidential election on 8 February 2014. On 14 March 2014, Hamdeen Sabahi criticized Field Marshal Sisi and the transitional interim government, expressing doubt about Sisi's commitment to democracy, arguing that the general bears a measure of direct and indirect responsibility for the human rights violations carried out during the period of the interim government, and denouncing what he deems to be the transitional government's hostility toward the goals of the revolution. Sabahi was confirmed as a candidate in the 2014 presidential election on 2 May 2014. He stated that he would do away with the protest law if he was elected president. He stated that he would amend the Camp David Accords and would allow the Egyptian people to vote on it if he was elected president. Sabahi however failed to make any headway in the election, losing to Sisi (the only other candidate), who won more than 96% of the nearly 23 million votes cast.

Role after 2014 After 2014 Sabahi stayed out of the political spotlight, attending meetings and gatherings with members of the Dignity Party from time to time, he participated in the Gaza war protests in Cairo. He attended a January 2026 gathering at his party's headquarters in Dokki where he called for the freedom of Nicolás Maduro and for people in Cairo to stand with the people in Caracas against American intervention.

Political views

Mohamed Morsi Sabahi argued in March 2013 that Mohamed Morsi, president of Egypt, is the "new Mubarak", but initially refused to endorse his overthrow by the military.

Israel During a televised debate which aired on Al-Manar TV on 3 April 2014, Tamer Hindawi, who is a spokesman for Sabahi's presidential campaign, stated (as translated by MEMRI) that "Our enmity with the Zionist enemy goes to our very existence. It's either us or them. No peace is possible. That's what we believe. The Zionist enemy is clearly the head of colonialism in the region. In our view, the Camp David Accords are responsible for many of our crises, and might even be the main reason for Egypt's subjugation to America, and for the decline in its role as an Arab, Islamic, and African leader...Sabahi believes that the Zionists are our enemy, but when the historic moment arrives, he will decide what action to take." In the same interview, the spokesman for the al-Sisi campaign echoed the remarks, stated that "We support anyone who points his gun at the Zionist enemy. As long as they point their weapons at the Zionist enemy, we support them, but we are against anyone who turns his gun elsewhere."

Sabbahi demands new protest law On 12 June 2014, on his Twitter account, Sabbahi called out over the internet for a new Egyptian protest law which organizes protests, and does not prevent or repression opposition. His remarks came after activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah and 24 others were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in absentia in the Shura Council case one day earlier.