CAIRO — Egyptian security forces arrested June 24 several politicians and activists in what they described as the so-called Hope Coalition, which they said is a conspiracy to use illicit Muslim Brotherhood funds to stir violence in the streets in a bid to topple the state.
Among those arrested were lawyer Ziad al-Elaimy, founding member of both the liberal Social Democratic Party and the January 25 Youth Revolutionary Coalition, young Nasserite leader Hossam Moaness and socialist journalist Hisham Fouad, all of whom were arrested on charges of belonging to a “terrorist group with a clear goal to destabilize Egypt.”