Egypt

24 May 2022; MEMO: Cairo's Court of Misdemeanours sentenced Yahya Hussein Abdel Hadi, co-founder of the Civil Democratic Movement, to four years in prison, for disseminating false news, his lawyer, Khaled Ali said.

The prosecution argued that Abdel Hadi had "deliberately disseminated false news inside and outside" Egypt and demanded he be punished.

23 May 2022; MEMO: In a cynical attempt to calm the Egyptian population about recent price hikes, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has suggested that Egyptians eat leaves from trees just as the Prophet (peace be upon him) did.

21 May 2022; MEMO: Egyptian human rights organizations have announced the deterioration of Aisha Al-Shater's health, the daughter of the Muslim Brotherhood leader Khairat Al-Shater, during her detention at Al-Qanater Women's Prison.

Aisha is suffering severe health complications, such as bone marrow failure, which led to a shortage of blood cells, including platelets and red blood cells.

20 May 2022; MEMO: Deputy General Guide of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Ibrahim Mounir, denounced "the slander and lies" contained in a report shared by the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam, to members of the British House of Commons during his visit to the United Kingdom.

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian authorities have transferred a prominent political activist from a maximum-security prison where he was allegedly tortured and denied basic rights to a new correctional facility, his family said on Thursday.

Alaa Abel-Fattah was transferred from Cairo’s Tora prison complex to Wadi El-Natrun prison in the north of the country, where he was visited on Thursday by his family, his sister Mona Seif wrote on Twitter.

20 May 2022; MEMO: The Central Bank of Egypt announced Thursday it raised its key policy rates by 200 basis points, citing high commodity prices, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The bank said its overnight deposit rate and the overnight lending rate were increased to 11.25 per cent and 12.25 per cent, respectively.

The rate of the main operation and the discount rate were each raised to 11.75 per cent.

17 May 2022; MEMO: The Egyptian regime is thought to be taking extra precautions to prevent an uprising as the economic crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to spiral.

Eighty per cent of Egypt's wheat imports are from Ukraine and Russia, which has pushed food prices up in a country that has lived for years through austerity measures and soaring living costs.

Egypt recently turned to the IMF for the third loan in six years, while one third of the population lives below the poverty line.

17 May 2022; MEMO: About 300,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat booked by Egypt's state grains buyer for delivery in February and March is yet to be shipped, with one cargo stuck in port and four others still to be loaded, four traders said and Reuters reports.

Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) has granted an extension to secure the cargoes but is not offering trading companies any force majeure release from contractual obligations, according to traders.

16 May 2022; MEMO: Egypt appears to have postponed carrying out death sentences on political opponents as pressure builds internally and the economy continues to spiral.

According to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the economy is one of the factors putting pressure on the government internally to clean up its image.

17 May 2022; MEMO: Egyptian citizens have expressed their anger on social media following the announcement of a government plan to sell seven of the country's largest ports.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly made the announcement, and added that the same strategy will be employed to sell state-owned hotels "in order to expand government institutions." Madbouly explained that the move was part of the "government's plan to handle the current global crisis."