Egypt jails ex-presidential hopeful for fraud

Salafi Islamist politician Hazim Salah Abu Ismail waves from inside the defendants cage during his trial in the Egyptian capital Cairo on April 16, 2014. By Mohamed el-Sherpeny (AFP)

Cairo (AFP) - A court jailed a Salafist leader to seven years for fraud Wednesday for keeping his mother's US citizenship secret when filing candidacy papers in Egypt's 2012 presidential election.

The country's electoral law stipulates that a candidate's parents must hold only Egyptian citizenship.

Judicial sources said Hazim Abu Ismail was sentenced for not revealing his mother's nationality when he filed to stand in the 2012 election that was won by the Islamist Mohamed Morsi.

Abu Ismail was arrested after the army ousted Morsi last July. He had denounced Morsi's removal as a "military coup".

Morsi -- Egypt's first democratically elected and civilian president -- was toppled after millions of demonstrators demanded his resignation after just one year in office.

Former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Morsi, and is now the frontrunner in next month's presidential election.