Saad El-Katatni ( ar, سعد الكتاتني, alternatively spelled ''El-Katatny'' or ''Al-Katatni''; born 4 March 1952) is an Egyptian Islamist politician who has been the chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) since October 2012. From January 2012 until its dissolution in September he was the first Speaker of the People's Assembly after the

Egyptian Revolution of 2011 The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January revolution ( ar, ثورة ٢٥ يناير; ), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police ho ...

. Prior to this, he served as the first secretary-general of the FJP and was a member of the Guidance Bureau of the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

Early life and education

El-Katatni was born on 4 March 1952. He completed his undergraduate studies of

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

at the

Assiut University Assiut University is a university located in Assiut, Egypt. It was established in October 1957 as the first university in Upper Egypt. Statistics *Faculty members: 2,442 *Assistant lecturers and demonstrators: 1,432 *Administrative staff: 11,686 ...

with a BSc degree in 1974. After one year of military conscription, he continued his studies, specialising in

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

and taking his master's degree in 1979. After four more years of study at the Minya University, concurrently with the work as an assistant lecturer, he was conferred a doctorate in microbiology (physiological plant pathology). Subsequently, he worked as a lecturer at the same university. In 1991 he was promoted to become associate professor. In 2004, he got a full professorship.

Political career

From 2005 to 2010, El-Katatni led the parliamentary bloc of the

. Later, he served on the guidance bureau of the group. When the Muslim Brotherhood founded the Freedom and Justice Party on 30 April 2011, El-Katatni was chosen as the secretary-general of the party. Therefore, he retired from the guidance bureau. On 22 January 2012, he resigned as FJP secretary to become elected as the Speaker of the People's Assembly of Egypt the next day. He received 399 votes, 80 percent of the 498 votes cast. On 19 October 2012, the FJP selected him to serve as the party's chairman. At the time, the FJP is Egypt's largest political party and controls 47% of Egypt's lower house of parliament's seats.

Political views

After he was selected as the FJP's party's chairman, Katatni expressed his desire to implement Islamic

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

law in Egypt, saying that the FJP was established by the

in order to represent the Brotherhood's "political project, which, in the end, will be a wise government that will institute Islamic Shari’a law." Katani declared his election as the first step toward achieving the FJP's goals.

Arrest

In the aftermath of the

2013 Egyptian coup d'état The 2013 Egyptian coup d'etat took place on 3 July 2013. Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led a coalition to remove the democratically elected President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, from power and suspended the Egyptian constitut ...

, El-Katatni was arrested on 4 July 2013. Egyptian prosecutor general

Hisham Barakat Hisham Muhammad Zaki Barakat ( ''Hišām Muḥammad Zakī Barakāt''; 21 November 1950 – 29 June 2015) was Prosecutor General of Egypt from 2013 to 2015. During his term as state prosecutor, he was responsible for thousands of controversial pr ...

ordered his assets to be frozen on 14 July 2013. On 29 October 2013, a three-judge panel at Cairo Criminal Court stepped down from the proceedings, citing "uneasiness" over the trial. On 11 December 2013, a second panel of judges withdrew from the trial. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2015, a decision that was overturned in November 2016. As of September 2019, El-Katatni remains in custody pending retrial.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Katatni, Saad 1952 births Living people Assiut University alumni Minya University alumni Cairo University alumni Minya University faculty Egyptian prisoners and detainees Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members Members of the House of Representatives (Egypt) Members of the Egyptian Constituent Assembly of 2012 Freedom and Justice Party (Egypt) politicians People from Sohag Governorate