Somebody listed Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt's president and military leader who rose to power in a 2014 coup, on the online auction site eBay in a failed bid to bail out the country's sputtering economy.
The move came after the strongman reportedly said in a speech that he would "sell" himself to help bail out Egypt's debt. It is unclear if an eBay auction was the outcome he anticipated.
"The field marshal himself stated that if selling himself will help, he will not hesitate to do it. So, we are doing it for him, for us and for the humanity," the seller wrote in the listing, which was removed hours after it went live. "Please, bid now to help Egypt gain its political and economic Independence."
More than 100 people were able to bid on the Egyptian strongman, driving his price up to more than $100,000, before the listing was removed on Wednesday afternoon.
Citizens of the world, we Egyptians are currently selling our president on eBay. Do us a favour and take him away https://t.co/Qx5FUXyLLn— Ana Mubasher (@Ana_Mubasher) February 24, 2016
The seller, dr_motown, had dozens of positive ratings on the site and has been a member since Feb, 2004. eBay said he or she was based in United States. The user helpfully answered a handful of questions on the "item," most notably its condition, shipping price and value.
Sisi, they wrote, is "used by the previous owners (Gulf royal families)," and shipping is free. The item, they said, "has no value" so they were relying on bidders to determine the cost.
The listing was to be open for seven more days before it was removed, stripping us of our chance at owning our very own Egyptian strongman.
While it doesn't list "Egyptian presidents" on its list of banned items, organs, bones, blood and body fluids are all prohibited. So Sisi, as a sum of his parts, would certainly be in violation of eBay's policy.