CAIRO (Updated) - Egyptian presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh Friday left hospital in Cairo following an attack on him, according to a health official. Three masked gunmen attacked Aboul Fotouh, a leading Islamist politician, late Thursday on the outskirts of Cairo as he was returning from a rally in the province of Menufia, northwest of the Egyptian capital, people in his campaign said. The assailant hit Aboul Fotouh over the head with a machine gun before making away with his car, they added. 'His health condition is stable. He left for home,' the online edition of the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram quoted Hesham Sheha, the undersecretary for the Health Ministry, as saying. He added that medical check-ups had shown that Aboul Fotouh had not sustained bone fractures in the attack that occurred early Friday. 'All the organs of his body function efficiently,' said Sheha. It was not clear whether the attack was a political attack or simple robbery. Security has been a major concern in Egypt since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak last year, with crime soaring despite government promises to re-establish security. Aboul Fotouh, a former senior official in the influential Muslim Brotherhood, is one of the front-runners in the upcoming presidential elections. Registration for contesting the election is to start on March 10.
