Al-Zawya Al-Hamra Misdemeanour Appeals Court ruled on Thursday to uphold Salafi preacher and television talkshow host Abdallah Badr’s one-year prison sentence and EGP 20,000 fine for libel against actress Elham Shahin.
Badr received the sentence in December after calling her a “prostitute” on his show. He also referred to her as “promiscuous” and “naked”.
Shahin filed a lawsuit against Badr, leading to the sentence. She also filed another suit with the Administrative Judiciary Court demanding the Al-Hafez channel, on which Badr appears, be shut down. The administrative court suspended Badr’s show and banned him from making television appearances for a month in January.
As he was not present at the hearing, Badr appealed the jail sentence and fine in December but the appeals court refused his appeal and upheld the verdict on Friday.
Badr also filed a counter-lawsuit against Shahin, accusing her of “spreading immoral behaviour” but the court did not rule in his favour.
Shahin’s lawyer used the two verdicts against Badr and the refusal of his lawsuit as evidence in his argument that Badr’s sentence should be upheld.
