A Cairo Criminal Court, convening inside Badr Prison, on Monday postponed the trial of Al Manassa cartoonist, translator, and guitarist Ashraf Omar until Oct. 12, 2026, according to a Facebook post by his lawyer, Khaled Ali.
Ali said the court postponed the case so the first prosecution witness, the investigating police officer, could attend the next hearing and be questioned.
On May 10, the court’s Second Circuit postponed Omar’s trial to Monday’s session to allow the defense to review the case file.
Omar and 11 other defendants, including one woman, were referred to trial in Case No. 11846 of 2025 (Fifth Settlement Felonies) last November after spending 16 months in pretrial detention following his arrest at his home on July 22, 2024.
Ali previously said prosecutors had charged Omar during the investigation with financing a terrorist group and participating in achieving its objectives.
According to Ali, prosecutors also accused him of “using a website on the international information network to promote ideas and beliefs advocating terrorist acts, and deliberately publishing false news, statements, and rumors inside and outside the country about Egypt’s internal situation in a manner that could undermine the state’s prestige and standing, disturb public security and peace, spread fear among the public, and harm the public interest.”
Ali added that when the referral order was issued on Nov. 15 last year, prosecutors dropped three charges, retained the charge of financing a terrorist group, and added the charge of participating in a terrorist group’s objectives.
Omar’s arrest and detention prompted widespread condemnation from organizations concerned with press freedom. Earlier, over 800 writers, intellectuals, and artists called for his release in a solidarity statement, saying that “arresting a young intellectual who chose to pursue his passion and constitutional right to express himself through translation and cartooning, and who made important contributions in both fields, is a dangerous indicator of the decline of cultural and creative freedom.”
Thirty-four Egyptian and international human rights and press freedom organizations, including Article 19, also condemned the imprisonment of journalists in Egypt. On Aug. 7, 2024, 11 human rights organizations denounced the targeting of journalists through security and judicial measures, as well as enforced disappearances, solely for carrying out their journalistic work.
Reporters Without Borders also condemned the arrest of the cartoonist. Its Middle East bureau chief, Jonathan Dagher, said, “It is not uncommon in Egypt for journalists to disappear before reappearing in a courtroom a few days later as prisoners.”
He added that such practices have no place in a country governed by the rule of law and stressed that “these practices that terrorize journalists must stop.”
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Egyptian authorities to release Omar immediately, while Amnesty International condemned his detention, saying it signaled an escalation in the Egyptian authorities’ “repressive campaign against the right to freedom of expression and independent media.”
