Egypt court postpones hearing in case against prominent journalist

A Cairo court on Wednesday postponed a case against the editor-in-chief of independent news website Mada Masr until next week to consider a defence request seeking the recusal of the judge, the outlet said.

The prosecution of Lina Attalah, one of Egypt's most prominent independent journalists, has drawn criticism from the United Nations, media watchdogs and rights groups, who say it could deal a final blow to one of the last remaining independent voices in Egypt's tightly controlled media landscape.

Attalah is being retried after she was handed a one-year prison sentence in absentia in 2024, without her knowledge, for operating a news website without a licence and "publishing false news" -- a charge commonly levelled against journalists and dissidents in Egypt.

Her lawyer, Hassan El-Azhary, said the defence would submit the grounds for their recusal request ahead of the next hearing, scheduled for November 18, arguing that the judge "had previously formed a conviction against the defendant".

The case is being heard by Judge Mohamed Mubarak, who on October 27 fined Attalah 3 million Egyptian pounds (about $56,000) and ordered the closure of Mada Masr in a separate case involving similar allegations.

While attending that hearing, Attalah said she was informed for the first time that she had already been sentenced in absentia in 2024 in the current case.

Mada Masr has survived more than a decade of restrictions on the press in Egypt.

The outlet said the current case stems from an investigation opened in November 2023 after Egypt's media regulator complained about a Mada Masr report published following the outbreak of the Gaza war.

Prosecutors questioned Attalah again in February 2024 over another report on Ibrahim Al-Argany, an influential Sinai businessman whose business has drawn scrutiny over its role facilitating the movement of people and goods through the Rafah crossing during the Gaza war.

- 'Widening assaults' -

The UN on Tuesday criticised what it called Egypt's "widening assaults on press freedom", including the "targeting, prosecution and harassment of independent journalists".

Attalah's prosecution "raises fresh concerns regarding due process and fair trial", said Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Cairo has long been criticised for its rights record and has, over the past decade, shut down nearly all space for dissent.

In an interview with AFP ahead of her trial, Attalah said Egypt was "trying to limit the already-limited space that there is for independent media", leaving only "silence".

She said Mada Masr had filed repeated licensing applications over eight years that went unanswered for years.

"We're not against regulation; we have a problem when the licensing becomes a tool of control, a tool of exclusion," she said.

Rights groups including Amnesty International have described the current crackdown as "unprecedented" after authorities arrested the entire newsroom of factchecking platform Matsadaash in September.

Six journalists remain in pretrial detention, which has been renewed several times, and have reportedly been subjected to torture and "forced to record fabricated confessions", according to the UN's rights commissioner, who called for their release.

The crackdown has also been criticised by US lawmakers, the European Union, and 135 rights groups and media organisations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Human Rights Watch.

"Egyptian authorities must immediately end this crackdown, reverse (Mada Masr's) shutdown and uphold constitutional protections for press freedom," said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah.

Despite such criticism, Egypt's Western allies have generally shown limited willingness to publicly pressure Cairo over its rights record, citing its role in regional security and diplomacy.

Last month, the United States waived human rights conditions attached to $320 million in military aid to Egypt.

Asked on Tuesday about the decision and concerns over press freedom, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Egypt "a reliable and good defence partner".

"Does not mean you agree on all things the other government does," Rubio said. "They have complied on a lot of other things."

bha-maf-stm/axn