Egypt: Ali Wanees, Salafi MP, accused of liaison with teen girl
Emad Abdel Ghaffour, president of the Salafist party Al Nour, speaks at a rally in Banha, Egypt in December 2011.
CAIRO, Egypt — What were an ultraconservative Islamist politician and a 19-year-old female student doing together in a car on Thursday night? That's what Egypt's judiciary wants to know, according to Egypt Independent.
An Egyptian prosecutor has reportedly summoned conservative Islamist lawmaker Ali Wanees of the ultraconservative Salafi Nour Party for questioning, said Al Arabiya.
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Local police said they arrested parliamentarian Wanees after they found him in a car with a teenage girl on a road between Cairo and Alexandria in the heavily Islamic Qalyubiya area in northern Egypt on Thursday, said the report. Wanees and the girl were charged with "an indecent act on a public road." Such language usually connotes sexual activities.
Wanees rejected the accusation, saying the girl was his niece and he was assisting her after falling ill, according to the Egypt Independent, but Al-Arabiya quoted Wanees as saying the girl — a 19-year-old university student identified as "Nesrine" — was his fiancee.
Wanees issued a statement Friday saying he was the victim of a smear campaign, according to Al-Arabiya.
Hundreds of his supporters of Wanees gathered Friday in the city of Banha to shout slogans against the police in a demonstration of support, said Al-Arabiya.