Presidential hopeful Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh is in stable condition after being assaulted and robbed late Thursday night, family sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm. The family sources said Friday that Abouel Fotouh was attacked at around 11 pm Thursday evening on the ring road outside Cairo, on his way home from an election rally in Monufiya Governorate. Three masked men in a Mitsubishi vehicle stopped Abouel Fotouh's car and assaulted his driver. When Abouel Fotouh tried to stop them, one of the assailants struck him on the back of his head with an automatic rifle and stole his car, leaving him and the driver on the road, sources from Abouel Fotouh's presidential campaign told Al-Masry Al-Youm. The presidential aspirant was transferred to the New Cairo Hospital in the Fifth Settlement, where he remained under observation, as doctors suspected he had a concussion. Family sources said Abouel Fotouh's condition is stable and he is speaking normally to members of his family. Doctors plan to carry out some medical tests to determine whether he can leave the hospital. The attack occurred two weeks before registration is set to begin for the presidential election. The military council in charge of governing the country in the transitional period plans to hand over power to a new head of state by the end of June. Abouel Fotouh was expelled from the Muslim Brotherhood, whose party comprises the largest bloc in the People's Assembly, when he decided to run, thus defying the group's decision not to field a presidential candidate.
