Lawyer Mahmoud Gowelly, an independent parliamentary candidate, was released on 100,000-pound bail Sunday following eight hours of questioning on “false news” charges. His release came amid growing concern over family claims that security forces had forcibly disappeared him earlier that day.
Prosecutors confronted Gowelly with a complaint from the Interior Ministry, which included an investigative report by New Cairo detectives. The documents accuse him of publishing Facebook videos claiming security forces obstructed his campaign to favor rival candidates from the Future of the Nation Party.
Amr El-Khashab, a member of the Lawyers' Syndicate who attended the interrogation, said the investigative report also cited Gowelly’s allegation that he was asked to pay a 20 million-pound bribe to join the party’s list. El-Khashab described the documents as part of a coordinated effort to silence a candidate challenging political interference.
El-Khashab told Al Manassa that Gowelly denied spreading false news, arguing that his statements reflected an ongoing public debate about money-for-nomination practices in parliamentary elections, rather than fabrication.
Gowelly told prosecutors he posted the videos in response to two days of security restrictions that hindered his campaign in New Cairo. He complained that his campaign posters were torn down, and his reports to police about the harassment were ignored despite repeated attempts to seek official protection, according to El-Khashab.
“We’ve been facing severe pressure for more than two months, and today was the worst,” said May Gohar, Gowelly’s wife Sunday morning in a video posted to his Facebook page. In it, May appealed to the president, the interior ministry and the public prosecutor, saying,
“My husband was taken from outside our home. They staged a distraction. People from the state security investigations service—or some unknown agency—came in four black cars. They told our building security that our car had been hit. When he went out to check, they pulled him into one of the cars,” Gohar explained. Her testimony painted a picture of a planned and coordinated snatch operation.
Their son also witnessed the incident, Gohar added, where “they tied my husband and forced him into the car. We don’t know which authority took him or why.” The description echoed tactics widely associated with forced disappearance, leaving the family in fear for his safety.
Hours later, May posted another video appealing again to the president and the Interior Ministry’s inspection unit for help, saying no one had responded to her calls for more than six hours.
Gohar said she filed three police reports over what she described as her husband's kidnapping, adding that she received threatening phone calls telling her to “stay silent if you want him released.”
Days earlier, Gowelly had posted a video alleging security harassment of his campaign in Badr and New Cairo, including the removal of his posters by unnamed individuals.
The video also showed people Gowelly described as criminal investigators stopping a car convoy belonging to his campaign en route to a nearby residential compound. He accused security forces directly of intervening to benefit rival candidates.
In response, the interior ministry issued a statement saying that the circulated videos showed individuals linked to a parliamentary candidate blocking traffic on a road in El Shorouk, and that claims of official harassment were false.
The ministry said police addressed the traffic violations and restored normal flow “without overreach,” adding that legal measures were underway against the person responsible for “promoting these allegations.” The statement did not address the wife’s detailed account of her husband’s disappearance.
