CAIRO
An Egyptian court on Monday set May 30 to rule on two lawsuits calling on the Egyptian government to designate Qatar and Turkey "state sponsors of terrorism," according to a judicial source.
The lawsuits were filed by lawyer Samir Sabri, who has filed a string of lawsuits against ousted President Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar's Al Jazeera news channel.
They accuse Doha and Ankara of providing a safe haven to "terrorists" and refusing to extradite them to Egypt.
In his lawsuits, Sabri said Qatar and Ankara had "supported all crimes committed on Egypt's soil."
He also accused the two states of hosting satellite channels that "incite the killing of [Egyptian] police officers and the torching of [Egyptian] state buildings."
Last week, Alexandria's Court for Urgent Matters said it lacked jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit calling on the Egyptian government to label Turkey a "terrorism-sponsoring state."
The suit also calls on the government to designate Egypt's April 6 youth group, Morsi's main support bloc, and Palestinian movement Hamas as "terrorist organizations."
Relations between Egypt on one side and Turkey and Qatar on the other have soured dramatically since the army ousted Morsi – Egypt's first freely elected leader – in mid-2013 amid opposition protests against his presidency.
Turkey has been among the few countries to openly describe the 2013 seizure of power by the Egyptian army – headed at the time by current President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi – as a "military coup."
Egypt-Qatar relations had appeared to improve following earlier mediation efforts by late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.
But they took a downturn again following the King's death in January.
