Television presenter Ahmed Moussa was fined EGP 15,000 for defaming activist Esraa Abdel Fattah.
Mousa lost the case after filing an appeal, according to Abdel Fattah’s lawyer Ramy Ghanem.
Ghanem won the case against Mousa’s defence lawyer Farid Al-Deeb, a lawyer affiliated with Mubarak-era figures, having represented Hosni Mubarak himself in high-profile cases.
A Nasr City Misdemeanour Court sentenced Moussa Tuesday to two years imprisonment and an EGP 20,000 fine for insulting, defaming and disclosing untrue facts about Osama Al-Ghazali Harb, head of the Democratic Front political party.
On 10 December 2014, the Nasr City Misdemeanour Court sentenced Moussa to six months’ imprisonment with hard labour or an EGP 5,000 bail for insulting a lawyer.
Moussa was also ordered to pay a fine of EGP 10,000, and another EGP 10,000 as compensation to Tarek Al-Awady, the lawyer of the Zamalek Sporting Club’s fan group the Ultras White Knights. He had described Al-Awady on air as a “fugitive”, accusing him of breaking into a police station, stealing a police vehicle and torching it in September.
Moussa, who hosts a programme on Sada Al-Balad television channel, was charged with spreading false news and defaming Al-Awady.
He is widely criticised by anti-government figures. An alleged leak from President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s office in January revealed that government officials allegedly picked media figures to convince citizens that Al-Sisi is targeted, and to encourage their support of his 2014 presidential campaign.
Among those referred to in the leak as “our” TV presenters were Ahmed Moussa, Wael Al-Ebrashy, and Ibrahim Eissa.
