Ahmed Tantawy, the former presidential candidate, has had his sentence upheld by an Egyptian court

On Tuesday, Tantawy’s legal team said that an Egyptian court has upheld a one-year prison term with labor against former presidential candidate Ahmed Tantawy and his campaign manager Mohamed Abou El-Diar for allegedly faking election paperwork.

The most well-known candidate to run against Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for a third term last year was Tantawy, who won with 89.6% of the vote.

He halted his candidacy prior to the election, claiming that he was unable to obtain the necessary number of public endorsements to be on the ballot because to harassment and arrests directed against dozens of his family members and allies.

Egyptian officials accused Tantawy’s campaign of distributing illegal duplicates of endorsement forms in order to garner popular support, but denied any wrongdoing.

Egypt’s Misdemeanor Appeals Court upheld the May court ruling on Monday, which prohibits Tantawy from seeking public office for five years and mandates that he pay a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($395).

Tantawy’s defense team member and well-known human rights attorney Khaled Ali said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that the appeals process was riddled with anomalies.

Ali claimed that for months, attorneys had trouble verifying court dates, with case files disappearing from court registries and sessions not showing up in official schedules.

Ali’s claims during the procedure and the decision were not promptly addressed by the public prosecution.

(50.7300 Egyptian pounds) is equal to $1.