Al-Masry Al-Youm owner Salah Diab sentenced to 6 months for insulting Mortada Mansour

The Economic Appeals Court sentenced Salah Diab, owner of the daily newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, to six months in prison and an LE20,000 fine for harassing and insulting Mortada Mansour in a phone call that Mansour had recorded, the privately owned newspaper Youm7 reported Wednesday.

Bail was set at LE5,000.

Mansour — a current member of Parliament, lawyer and controversial president of the Zamalek Club who is notorious for his many legal battles — sued Diab in April on the grounds of phone harassment and insulting Mansour, the Zamalek Club and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. In December 2015, the Economic Misdemeanors Court acquitted Diab of the harassment count but fined him LE10,000 for insulting Mansour, who in turn appealed the verdict.  

During the retrial, Diab claimed that Mansour did not have permission to record the phone call in question, that the recording itself had been tampered with and that he had only made the call after Mansour had contacted and threatened him first.

Article 76 of the communications law stipulates a fine of LE500-20,000 for anyone convicted of using, or aiding in the use, of illegal telecommunications equipment, or misusing telecommunications equipment to intentionally harass another party.

Diab, one of the most prominent investors in Egypt, owns several businesses across sectors including the food industries, textiles and publishing.

In November, Diab and his son were arrested from their home on charges of illegal arms possession. He was released days later on LE50,000 bail.

One day prior to that arrest, the prosecution froze Diab’s assets, in addition to the assets of other suspects accused of illegally appropriating state lands and using them to build tourist resorts in violation of a court ruling that the lands in question should be cultivated.