US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Tuesday that the US is closely monitoring the elections in Egypt following the arrest of presidential hopeful Sami Anan, who was accused by the Egyptian Armed Forces in a dramatic televised statement of committing forgery, violating army rules, and inciting against the armed forces.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are watching closely the situation in Egypt and we are aware of what is going on,\u201d Nauert told a reporter during a press conference, following Anan\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n
She expressed disapproval of the shape which the elections have taken place so far, \u201cWe are not supporting the presence of restrictions on the expression of opinions in Egypt,\u201d Nauert said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States wants a fair and free electoral process [in] Egypt.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Presidential hopeful Sami Anan\u2019s official campaign coordinator Mahmoud Refaat posted on Twitter that Anan has been arrested after a statement was released by Armed Forces, in which it said that Anan will be investigated over charges of \u201cforgery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the official Facebook page for Sami Anan\u2019s presidential campaign said that campaign activities will be suspended following the release of the army\u2019s statement and the presidential hopeful\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe campaign of candidacy #Sami_Annan announces with great sorrow the suspension of the campaign until further notice, for the sake of keeping the security and safety of all citizens who are in need of change,\u201d the campaign\u2019s statement read.<\/p>\n
The armed forces released on Tuesday a televised statement in which it said that Anan, who is the former chief of staff of the armed forces has not received permission from the army to run for the 2018 Egyptian presidential elections, and that he had committed \u201cforgery\u201d in his official documents.<\/p>\n
It added that this was a violation of army rules and an investigation will be conducted against him by army authorities.<\/p>\n
Anan announced on January 20 via a video posted on his official Facebook page, affirming that he intended to run in Egypt\u2019s presidential elections.<\/p>\n
This video has also been cited by the armed forces, as \u201cincitement\u201d against the army, accusing him of disrupting the relationship between Egyptians and the army.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Tuesday that the US is closely monitoring the elections in Egypt following the arrest of presidential hopeful Sami Anan, who was accused by the Egyptian Armed Forces in a dramatic televised statement of committing forgery, violating army rules, and inciting against the armed forces. \u201cWe are watching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7863],"tags":[31754,30953,25389],"class_list":["post-67891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-section","tag-heather-nauert","tag-sami-anan","tag-us-state-department"],"yoast_head":"\n