Attalah challenges Mada Masr shutdown verdict, appeal hearing set
Defense lawyers for Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of independent news outlet Mada Masr, have filed an appeal against the misdemeanor court ruling ordering her to pay a 3 million Egyptian pound fine, shutting down the news website, and confiscating its equipment, counsel Hassan El-Azhary told Al Manassa.
An appellate court has scheduled the opening hearing for Nov. 25, 2026, following the Oct. 27 verdict by the New Cairo Misdemeanor Court, which convicted Attalah in Case No. 11743 of 2026 on charges of “operating a website without a license.”
Attalah’s defense team issued a statement on Sunday emphasizing that she had never relinquished her right to challenge the judgment, directly refuting a Saturday release by Egypt’s Supreme Judicial Council. The council had asserted that Attalah paid the mandated fine and formally renounced her right to an appeal in writing.
Defense attorneys had visited the New Cairo prosecution office on Sunday to lodge their appeal against the misdemeanor verdict, the legal team noted, but officials left the request unanswered through the end of the day while refusing to provide a case dossier or a certified copy of the ruling.
The controversy deepened late Saturday when the official Facebook page of the Egyptian Court of Cassation published an initial version of the council’s statement at 9:30 pm, attempting to counter public skepticism regarding fair-trial safeguards in the proceedings against Mada Masr.
That dispatch dismissed reports circulated on social media concerning breaches of due process, claiming the hearing records refuted such allegations.
According to the council’s initial account, public prosecutors referred Attalah to trial on accusations of “establishing and administering a website prior to obtaining a license from the Supreme Council for Media Regulation.” The council stated that Attalah appeared in court alongside her full defense team, which submitted a motions brief and requested an adjournment to inspect the case file, adding that the bench granted the defense access.
Administrators of the Court of Cassation page abruptly deleted the post shortly after publication, uploading an altered version at 11:41 pm with substantial modifications to the court’s procedural account.
A line-by-line review conducted by Al Manassa revealed that the revision focused exclusively on the second paragraph, which addressed the presiding judge’s response to the defense motion for review.
In the deleted first draft, the council conceded that the court refused the postponement request. The original text defended that denial by claiming the defense had insisted on an adjournment, which the court determined through its judicial discretion constituted an unjustified prolongation of litigation; the text added that the case stood ready for adjudication, leading the judge to appoint a substitute lawyer who received document access and presented pleadings to safeguard Attalah’s right to counsel.
In the revised version, the council excised all explanations invoking judicial discretion or characterizing the motion as an effort to prolong litigation. The altered text instead placed responsibility squarely on Attalah’s attorneys, claiming the bench provided document access to the defense team, which then refused it, prompting the appointment of an assigned attorney who examined the files and argued the case.
Mada Masr had spent years attempting to formalize its operations under Egypt’s press regulatory regime. The outlet applied for a license with the Supreme Council for Media Regulation in 2018, receiving no reply, and submitted a follow-up application after the law’s executive regulations took effect in 2020, which authorities also left unanswered.
Attalah discovered that the regulatory body had rejected the request without formal notification or adequate statutory justification only when summoned for interrogation in 2022. While the publication challenged that rejection before the administrative judiciary, a subsequent licensing request lodged in 2023 remains unresolved by authorities.