Cairo: The Egyptian actors’ union has revoked membership of three celebrated actors, who work for television stations based abroad linked to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
They are Hesham Abdul Hamid, Hesham Abdullah and Mohammad Shuman, who host shows on Al Sharq (Orient) and Watan (Nation) stations that transmit from Turkey, head of the actors’ union Ashraf Zaki said on Tuesday.
The three Egyptian performers have been dismissed from the Cairo-based Acting Professions Syndicate for failing to pay the annual fees of the union’s membership, according to Zaki.
“The law stipulates that the member, who does not pay membership fee for more than a year is struck off,” Zaki said. He disclosed that the three had sent proxies to renew their membership on their behalf, a move that was rejected by the union. Actors working in Egypt must be licensed by the union.
“They [the trio] have to show up themselves at the syndicate in order to have their membership renewed,” Zaki said.
The three actors have gained renown in the homeland for acclaimed roles they have played in local films, TV and stage works. They left Egypt in the wake of the army’s 2013 toppling of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi, who hails from the Brotherhood, following enormous protests against his rule.
They have since hosted programmes critical of the Egyptian government on Brotherhood-affiliated broadcasters in Turkey, where they are believed to be living. Turkey is a staunch backer of the Brotherhood that is designated as a terrorist organization in Egypt.
“I hope that these people will come to their senses and know that they have become famous artists because of this great country [Egypt],” Zaki said. “I was a witness to their beginnings that were in Egypt. I’d like to tell them that the people, who have made you well-known actors, do not deserve this from you,” Zaki, an actor, told private Egyptian television Al Asama.
He denied that membership of the three has been scrapped due to their anti-government leanings.
Abdul Hamid, 55, is the most celebrated among the three. He performed in more than 30 Egyptian films, in addition to scores of TV drams and three stage shows.
One of the three actors—Hesham Abdullah-- is wanted in Egypt to serve a jail term.
In November last year, an Egyptian court convicted Abdullah, now aged 57, of spreading false news on his programme at Watan TV and sentenced him to three years in prison. He was tried in absentia.
Hundreds of Brotherhood’s followers in Egypt have been rounded up and jailed in different cases since Mursi’s overthrow. Dozens of Brotherhood-linked fugitives, wanted in Egypt, are thought to be living in Turkey and Qatar, which have refused to hand them over.
