CAIRO: Prominent businessman Ramy Lakkah appealed Monday a court order preventing him from running in the parliamentary elections, claiming he has dual nationalities and thus cannot be in the People’s Assembly.
"I have all documents proving that I’ve already renounced my French citizenship," Lakkah told Daily News Egypt.
The hearing will be held on Dec. 19 at the High Administrative Court, according to Lakkah.
The Administrative Court decided Sunday to scrap Lakkah from the list of candidates registered to run in the People’s Assembly elections that kicked off on Nov. 28-29.
The court stated that the passport and immigrations’ division at the Ministry of Interior presented documents proving that Lakkah still holds his French citizenship, along with the Egyptian, in a breach of the PA and Shoura Council laws.
The court cited in its verdict that the nationality creates a bond between the citizen and the country, adding that dual citizenship indicates that one’s loyalty is divided between two states.
A PA member must have full loyalty to his country and that can only take place when the MP only holds the Egyptian citizenship, according to the court.
However Ahmed Ragheb, lawyer at the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, described this law and the court’s interpretations of it as "unconstitutional" and "against human rights."
"Holding dual citizenship is a right guaranteed to all Egyptians and doesn’t necessarily compromise their loyalty and devotion to Egypt," Ragheb told DNE.
Lakkah claimed that he received six previous court orders in his favor proving that he relinquished the French citizenship.
"I don’t understand these [contradictory] verdicts," he said.
On Nov. 21, the Administrative Court allowed Lakkah to run in the parliamentary elections, stating that he had renounced his French citizenship before the 2010 parliamentary elections, in order to run in parliament.
However, independent candidate Sameh Saied appealed the court’s verdict, presenting new documents proving that Lakkah had kept his French citizenship.
In the 2010 elections, Lakkah, then a member of Al-Wafd Party, lost to a candidate of the now-disbanded National Democratic Party, Fady El-Habashy, in the Shoubra El-Kheima constituency.
A current member of the Reform and Development party, he is now running on top of the party’s list in Cairo’s first constituency, which includes Shoubra, Sahel and Sharabiya.
The elections will be repeated in this constituency on Jan. 10-11, due to several violations during the vote counting, in compliance with a court order.
November’s court verdict also included prominent liberal politician Amr Hamzawy and renowned actress Tayseer Fahmy, both accused of holding dual citizenship.
The verdict was also in their favor, as Hamzay renounced his German citizenship before applying for candidacy and Fahmy was found to hold only the Egyptian citizenship, while her husband is an American citizen.
Hamzawy snatched the professionals seat in the Heliopolis district in the first round of elections, winning 53.7 percent of the votes without having to go through the run-offs.
