What happened
Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of the independent Egyptian outlet Mada Masr, was taken into custody on Tuesday after the New Cairo Misdemeanours Court found her guilty of managing a website without a license, her lawyers said, according to the BBC. The court also ordered the outlet closed.
She will remain in detention until she pays a fine of 3m Egyptian pounds, roughly $53,500. According to the BBC, that was the heaviest penalty available for the offense. Attalah had rejected the charge.
The verdict followed a week of legal steps. Prosecutors had summoned her for questioning over accusations of publishing "false news" and running a website without a license. She was released on bail and then referred to trial on the licensing charge alone.
A chaotic hearing, according to the defense
Mada Masr's lawyer said the questioning covered a recent report on a wave of prison protests across the country, as well as a letter from the Supreme Media Regulatory Council about the outlet's legal status.
Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, was one of the few people allowed to remain in the courtroom. Judge Mohammed Mubarak cleared everyone else except Attalah and her eight-person defense team. Bahgat told AFP that security personnel then entered, and the judge rejected several procedural requests from the defense and named a lawyer of the court's own choosing for Attalah.
Bahgat said the judge entered into the official record that a lawyer from the Lawyers' Syndicate had been appointed. Attalah objected, but according to Bahgat the judge declined to note her objection. He said the judge then dictated motions on behalf of that lawyer, who had not spoken, and had them recorded. The fine and the closure order followed "amid shouts and protests from the defence", Bahgat said.
The wider context
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Mada Masr, founded in 2013, has been a vital source of critical reporting and has long faced pressure from the authorities. The group said the outlet repeatedly applied for an operating license from the regulatory council after a new media law passed in 2018, but its applications were rejected or went unanswered.
Amnesty International said Attalah has endured years of harassment and intimidation, including six criminal investigations tied to the outlet's reporting.
The ruling also arrives only weeks after six journalists with the independent fact-checking platform Matsda2sh were charged with belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the BBC reported. The CPJ counts 25 journalists currently jailed in Egypt, placing the country among the world's leading jailers of reporters.
Human rights groups say President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has presided over an unprecedented crackdown on dissent since he led the military's removal of his predecessor, Mohammed Morsi, in 2013. Tens of thousands of people have been detained, mostly Brotherhood officials and supporters but also secular and liberal activists, media workers and academics.
Reaction from rights groups
Amnesty International called the verdict "a crushing blow to press freedom" and "a dark day for independent journalism", and it urged that the ruling be overturned. Yasmine Ahmed, the group's senior director for regional impact, said: "Lina Attalah should never have been prosecuted for exercising her right to freedom of expression and doing her journalistic job."
Sara Qudah, the CPJ's regional director, said: "If Egypt can put in custody one of its most respected editors and shut down her newsroom, no independent journalist in the country is safe." She called for Attalah's immediate release and for Mada Masr to be allowed to continue reporting.
