By Ali Abo Rezeg

CAIRO

An Egyptian court on Wednesday ruled to uphold the detention of former presidential candidate and prominent lawyer Khalid Ali for a three-month period.

A judicial source, who preferred anonymity, told local media outlets that the Dokki appeals court (west of capital Cairo) had sentenced Ali after convicting him of “making obscene hand gestures” outside a Cairo court early last year.

Mohamed Issa, a member of Ali’s defense team, told Anadolu Agency that the sentence was still subject to appeal before Egypt’s Court of Cassation, the country’s highest appellate court.

Ali, 45, ran in Egypt’s 2012 presidential poll, which was ultimately won by Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader. (Morsi was later ousted -- following only one year in power -- in a bloody military coup).

Ali had also announced his decision to run in Egypt’s 2018 presidential election against incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who had led the 2013 coup against Morsi.

Ali later withdrew his candidacy, however, attributing the move to intimidation by the al-Sisi regime -- an allegation denied by the latter.