Prosecutor General Tala'at Abdallah has opened an investigation against two TV presenters and the founders of the Tamarod petition campaign on Monday. The complaint that led to the investigation accused TV hosts Amr Adib and Mohamed Mostafa Sherdy, along with three founders of Tamarod for inciting and mobilising people to overthrow an elected government, inciting hatred against the regime, and promoting a group suspected of violating the law, according to state-owned Al-Ahram. During the two TV presenters' programme on Al-Youm channel Al-Qahira Al-Youm, Sherdy responded to the investigation by filling a Tamarod form on the air. The Tamarod campaign responded to the investigation with a statement posted on its Facebook page. "We will not be afraid and will never retreat from our initiative, because we are not alone," read the statement. Tamarod, or "rebellion", was launched last month and aims to withdraw confidence from President Mohamed Morsi through a petition campaign. The grassroots movement said its goal was to obtain more than 13.2 million signatures, more than the total votes received by Morsi in the second round of last year's presidential elections. Tamarod has said that it will aim to collect the signatures by 30 June; one year after the president was sworn into office. Opposition leaders including Hamdeen Sabahy, Amr Moussa, Mohamed ElBaradei, and Amr Hamzawy have supported the initiative, while the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of the president have strongly criticised the movement. Last week Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya member Assem Abdel Maged launched Tagarod, another counter petition campaign insisting that President Morsi fulfill his term "as long as we do not see from him outright blasphemy". Earlier this week owner of conservative Islamist Al-Hafez satellite channel Atef Abdel Rashid, who is also a presenter, signed a Tagarod petition on the air.
