Her lawyers say the court ordered Mada Masr’s closure and fined Attalah 3 million Egyptian pounds. She was released several hours later after Mada Masr paid the fine in full.
Egypt’s New Cairo Misdemeanours Court convicted Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief and co-founder of independent news outlet Mada Masr, of managing an unlicensed website on 27 October, her lawyers said. Mada Masr said it paid her 3 million Egyptian pound fine ($53,500) in full, securing her release after several hours in custody, in an account carried by the BBC.
The court also ordered Mada Masr’s closure and the confiscation of its equipment and devices, Al Jazeera said. The prosecution followed licensing efforts that Mada Masr says it began in 2018, when Egypt passed and ratified a law regulating the press.
Mada Masr said Attalah learned during the release procedures that she had received a one-year prison sentence in a separate case in 2024. The sentence was imposed in absentia—without her being present—for publishing false news and managing an unlicensed website. Her lawyers have challenged that ruling.
That prison sentence was not part of the 27 October verdict. Prosecutors had dropped the false-news allegation from the referral for the October trial, leaving the licensing charge.
The fine was the maximum penalty for the licensing charge, which Attalah had rejected. Her detention after the verdict was to continue until payment. The ruling applied Article 105 of Egypt’s 2018 media law, which provides for fines of 1 million to 3 million Egyptian pounds, closure and confiscation for operating an unlicensed website.
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Bahgat told AFP that security personnel then entered and the judge rejected several defence requests before appointing a lawyer to represent Attalah. Attalah objected, but the judge refused to record her objection. The judge dictated motions for the appointed lawyer, who had not spoken, and entered them into the record before issuing the verdict amid defence protests.
Mada Masr publishes in Arabic and English, including reporting critical of Egypt’s government. It said authorities left its licensing attempts unanswered for years. It learned in 2022 that its application had been rejected and filed a lawsuit that year. In 2023, an administrative court upheld the refusal, citing a lack of proof that the outlet’s trademark was registered; Mada Masr’s lawyer said he had submitted the registration certificate.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Mada Masr repeatedly applied to Egypt’s Supreme Media Regulatory Council, but its applications were rejected or left unanswered.
Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution referred Attalah for trial, Mada Masr said on 22 October in an account carried by DW. Prosecutors had questioned her for six hours in New Cairo on 21 October. The allegation later dropped from that referral accused her of publishing false news “with the aim of disturbing public peace.”
Before the trial, Mada Masr’s legal counsel Hassan al-Azhari warned that a conviction could bring the fine specified by the law. He criticised the speed of the referral and called the scheduling of the 27 October trial evidence of “unjustified urgency.”
The prosecution followed the September arrests of six journalists from Matsadaash, an independent fact-checking and investigative website. Sara Qudah, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Middle East and North Africa director, accused Egypt of using its media law to punish independent journalism and intensify a crackdown that began with those arrests. Reporters Without Borders also expressed alarm over prosecutors’ questioning of Attalah.
After the verdict, Amnesty International called it “a crushing blow to press freedom” and demanded that it be overturned. Before Attalah’s release, Qudah called for her immediate release and said Mada Masr must be allowed to keep reporting.
Mada Masr says a retrial hearing over the separate 2024 prison sentence is scheduled for 11 November.
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