Africaupdated 19m ago2 min read
Archive photo · 20 April 2024Egypt Court Orders Mada Masr Closed, Fines Editor Lina Attalah Three Million Pounds
“These charges had arisen from her legitimate journalistic work.”
“On Wednesday, she will be retried for that sentence, which was issued in absentia even though she was in Egypt.”
Photo: Jennifer 8. Lee, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Egyptian court ordered Mada Masr closed and equipment confiscated, with a 3 million-pound fine. Editor Lina Attalah sentenced in absentia to one year in prison for false information and license-less operation.
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Court orders closure
Egypt’s New Cairo Misdemeanor Court ordered Mada Masr closed and fined its editor-in-chief Lina Attalah three million Egyptian pounds, while security personnel detained her in the courtroom after the October 27 verdict. Lina Attalah faced a potential prison sentence after a 2024 in absentia conviction for spreading false news and operating a website without a licence, with the appeal proceedings scheduled for 25 November 2026.
“We have been requesting the license for years and have not received a response.”
Attalah told El País that she was “very shocked by what happened and by how I was forcibly removed from the court,” and she said, “We have been requesting the license for years and have not received a response.” DW said the United Nations criticised Egypt for “widening assaults on press freedom,” urging authorities to halt harassment of journalists and news outlets, including the closure of Mada Masr and the one-year prison sentence handed down in absentia.
Detention, torture allegations
The UN rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva that Egypt was targeting, persecuting and harassing independent journalists, and he said the six staff members of Matsadaash remained in detention. DW reported that Kheetan said the lawyers for the Matsadaash staff reported they were “subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment and forced to record fabricated confessions.”
Front Line Defenders said Attalah was due to appear before the New Cairo Misdemeanor Court in appeal proceedings on 11 November 2026 concerning the 2024 in absentia conviction that sentenced her to one year in prison. Front Line Defenders also said Attalah’s defence team filed an appeal and requested access to the case file, but it reported that the court rejected those requests and appointed another lawyer despite objections by Attalah and her defence team.
What comes next
Amnesty International warned in the Substack account that there is a serious risk Lina Attalah will be sent to prison as the retrial proceeds after her lawyers objected to the in absentia sentence.
“She faces up to a year in prison and a substantial fine.”
The Substack account said Attalah’s appeal against the closure is set for November 25, and it described that “Spreading false information” carries up to a year in prison.
Los Angeles Times reported that Attalah told The Associated Press, “We are not the problem. I think our disappearance is a problem,” as Mada Masr appealed the closure order.
El País said Mada Masr’s director faced up to a year in prison and a substantial fine, and it described that Attalah spent seven hours in a cell on Tuesday until her lawyers paid a three million Egyptian pounds fine.