CAIRO: An Egypt appeals court on Saturday handed the former head of the journalists’ union and two members a suspended one-year jail sentence for "harbouring fugitives", a judicial source said.
Yahiya Kallash, Gamal Abd el-Rahim and Khaled Elbalshy were sentenced to two years in prison in November for sheltering two journalists wanted over protests against the transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. But they were released on bail and filed an appeal.
Their arrest in May last year followed a police raid on the union building to detain two reporters from an opposition website who had been accused of incitement to protest in violation of the law.
Kallash had denounced the police raid on union headquarters to arrest reporters Amr Badr and Mahmud al-Sakka, saying the government was "escalating the war against journalism and journalists".
Activists had organised two rare protests in April last year against handing the islands to Saudi Arabia.
In January, Egypt’s top administrative court upheld a ruling voiding the government agreement on the islands of Tiran and Sanafir.
Rights activists accuse President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of running an ultra-authoritarian regime that has violently suppressed all opposition since toppling Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Harvey Weinstein. — AFP FileNEW YORK: Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction for sexual assault and rape was...
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan on Sept. 13, 2016. — Slate website WASHINGTON: U.S. Supreme Court justices, wading back...
A representational image of inmates behind jail bars. — Unsplash/FileMOSCOW: A Russian court on Wednesday ordered...
Sudanese soldiers guard the surrounding area of the UNMIS compound in El-Fasher, the administrative capital of North...
US quietly shipped ATACMS missiles to Ukraine. — Report news agencyWASHINGTON: The United States in recent weeks...
US President Joe Biden during his address in California. — AFP FileWASHINGTON: President Joe Biden signed a...