Egyptian authorities released independent journalist Lina Attalah from custody on Tuesday, hours after she was detained and after a court ordered her website shut, her lawyer told AFP.
Attalah is one of Egypt’s most prominent journalists, and her detention had sparked swift condemnation from rights groups and press freedom advocates.
A court had earlier fined Attalah three million Egyptian pounds (around $53,400) for operating website Mada Masr without a licence, the maximum possible penalty for the misdemeanour she was charged with, and ordered Mada’s closure.
“Lina Attalah was released after we paid the said fine,” her lawyer Hassan al-Azhari said, referring to a three million Egyptian pound ($53,400) fine.
“In the process, we discovered that she had been sentenced in absentia in 2024 to a year in prison, as well as a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds,” he told AFP.
Attalah’s defence team has appealed that sentence, and a new court hearing is scheduled for November 11, Azhari said.
News of the release followed condemnation by rights groups of the detention, which they described as a sharp escalation in Cairo’s crackdown on press freedom.
Mada Masr says it has not received a response from authorities about its licence application since 2023.
The hours-long detention comes weeks after the arrest of an entire fact-checking newsroom, on charges of fake news, which are frequently levelled against media seen to be critical of the government.
Hossam Bahgat, head of prominent rights group the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), was present at the court and gave AFP an account of events leading up to the arrest.
During the hearing Tuesday, the defence team said the judge ordered the room cleared except for Attalah and her lawyers, before security officers also entered the room.
Attalah’s eight-person defence team had made procedural requests denied by the court, which then announced it had appointed its own lawyer for the journalist.
“In a move that astonished all those present, the judge recorded in the official court minutes that the court had appointed a lawyer from the Lawyers’ Syndicate to represent the defence,” Bahgat said.
“Lina herself spoke up to object to this lawyer being appointed to represent her, which the judge refused to record in the court minutes.”
“In an even more shocking turn, the judge proceeded to dictate motions on behalf of this lawyer — who had not uttered a single word — and entered them into the official record,” he added.
The judge then announced the fine and ordered Mada’s closure “amid shouts and protests from the defence”, before Attalah was detained by the security personnel in the room.
– ‘Wiping out’ free press
This was the sixth case brought against Attalah and Mada Masr in as many years, but none had ever gone to trial.
Egypt is currently holding 26 journalists in connection with their work, according to an EIPR tally.
The crackdown “can only mean that Egypt’s security agencies are moving from years of harassing independent media to wiping them out completely”, Bahgat had told AFP when Attalah was referred to trial.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) branded the court’s decision “outrageous” and “shameful”, urging authorities to release Attalah “at once”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also condemned the verdict.
“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,” CPJ regional director Sara Qudah said in a statement.
Earlier this month, six journalists from fact-checking platform Matsadaash were charged with terrorism offences, after being arrested in a series of raids in September.
EIPR, which represents the journalists, said they had reported torture following their arrests, allegations denied by the interior ministry.
Authorities accused them of links to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and spreading “rumours and false news” to undermine confidence in state institutions and incite people to protest.
They are currently being held in pretrial detention, which rights groups say can be extended for months or years before detainees are released or face trial.
AFP
Source: punchng.com
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