The Nasr City Appeal Court upheld Tuesday the two year-long imprisonment ruling given in absentia to television presenter Ahmed Moussa.
Moussa had been given the sentence for insulting, defaming and disclosing untrue facts about Osama Al-Ghazali Harb, head of the Democratic Front political party.
Moussa lost the case after filing an appeal. The presenter, criticised for being a government propagandist, was also fined EGP 20,000.
Moussa did not attend the session, which the court considered an insult, said Harb’s lawyer Ramy Ghanem.
The presenter can, however, appeal the decision, but only upon his arrest, as he still remains free.
On 29 April, Moussa was fined EGP 15,000 for defaming activist Esraa Abdel Fattah. He 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 Zamalek SC’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.
