Three activists appeared in court on Saturday accused of insulting President Mohamed Morsy by painting graffiti on the headquarters of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in Minya.
The defendants in the case are Abdo Osama, Mina Roshdy and Ahmed Sayed. All three are members of the 6 April youth movement.
Spokesperson for the movement, Mohamed Adel denied that the graffiti they are accused of spraying had anything to do with Morsy.
He said: “The graffiti was done before the referendum on the constitution and it was a picture of Jika. I expect the judge to release all three of them.” Jika was a member of the movement and was killed during clashes in downtown Cairo in November.
Adel confirmed that the 6 April movement had provided legal assistance for their members.
He said that the graffiti was not sprayed on the FJP headquarters but in a square in central Minya and that the original complaint was made by Shura council member Hamdi Sabiq, who is also a member of the FJP.
This is the latest occurrence of people being accused of insulting the president, who are generally journalists and opposition activists. Last Wednesday, a complaint was filed against Gamal Fahmy who is a board member of the Press Syndicate. The complaint was filed by the presidency’s legal affairs department.
Complaints have also been made against television presenters Bassem Youssef, Tawfiq Okasha and editor of Al-Dostour newspaper, Islam Afifi.
The presidency denied that it was behind all of the complaints, saying that it only makes a complaint when false news is published.
