An Egyptian court on Monday upheld a six-month jail sentence against Akhbar Al Youm journalist Mohamed Taher, ordering it suspended for three years, in a case stemming from a brief news report published more than four years ago.
The Boulaq Aboulela Misdemeanors Court, convening at the Galaa Courts Complex, ruled that while Taher would not be jailed immediately, the sentence remains in force and could be enforced if he is convicted in a similar case within the suspension period.
According to a statement by the Egyptian Observatory for Journalism and Media (EOJM) on Tuesday, the case dates to January 2022, when Taher published a news item on Akhbar Al Youm’s website saying rain had fallen inside the Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada museums, amid what the report described as the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities’ neglect.
EOJM said the press institution deleted the report minutes after publication and later posted the ministry’s denial, but the head of the ministry’s Museums Sector insisted on pursuing the journalist through a complaint to the public prosecutor.
EOJM, which represented Taher, said he was convicted in absentia on July 21, 2025, and sentenced to six months in jail and fined 200 Egyptian pounds on charges of “publishing false news.”
After the observatory’s legal team appealed, the court on Monday ruled the appeal admissible, but upheld the conviction and suspended the jail sentence for three years.
Suspending the sentence means the jail term remains in force for three years and can be enforced if Taher is convicted in a similar case during that period.
Egypt’s Penal Code gives courts discretionary authority to suspend a jail sentence of no more than one year if, based on the defendant’s character, age, record, or case circumstances, it believes they will not reoffend.
Under Article 56, the suspension period runs for three years from the date of the ruling. If the same defendant is later sentenced in another case to more than one month in jail for an act committed during the suspension period, or even before it, the law allows the court that issued the suspension to revoke it and order enforcement of both the earlier and later sentences.
