Qasr Al-Nil Misdemeanour Court adjourned on Saturday the trial of the Press Syndicate’s head Yahia Qalash and two board members, Khaled El-Balshy and Gamal Abdelrahim, to 2 July.
Qalash, El-Balshy, and Abdelrahim did not attend the session, in which the general prosecution, the Ministry of Interior, and a civil plaintiff presented evidence to the court. The defence lawyers requested a copy of the CDs presented to the court as evidence before proceeding with listening to the witnesses.
The court decided the 2 July session will witness the testimonies of national security officers, the syndicate headquarters’ civil security personnel, and member of the syndicate board Hatem Zakaria.
The syndicate leaders are facing charges of harbouring wanted suspects inside the syndicate headquarters and propagating false news.
In late May, the trio spent a night in police custody after refusing to pay EGP 10,000 bail each, following an investigation session by the general prosecution.
They were interrogated by the prosecution on charges of hosting Yanair Gate’s editor-in-chief Amr Badr and journalist Mahmoud Al-Saqa inside the syndicate building in April, and also “spreading false news”.
Badr and Al-Saqa were arrested inside the syndicate on 1 May, causing uproar among the civil rights society, leading the syndicate to call for the sacking of the interior minister.
The syndicate leaders consider the trial an attempt to manipulate the facts in order to depict the storming of the syndicate as an ordinary security measure.
