Court sentences talk show host Ahmed Moussa to 1 year in prison, LE10,000 fine for slander

Nasr City Misdemeanours Court sentenced talk show host Ahmed Moussa to a year in prison and LE10,000 fine on charges of libel and slander against former presidential candidate and current Strong Egypt Party Head Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh on Tuesday, privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported. 

Abouel Fotouh had filed a lawsuit against Moussa, accusing him of making slanderous remarks on one of his talk show episodes on private satellite channel Sada al-Balad.

This is the not the first time Moussa has been convicted and sentenced on similar charges. On May 26, an appeals court upheld a two-year prison sentence and LE20,000 fine handed down to Moussa on charges of libel and slander against Democratic Front Party head Osama al-Ghazaly Harb.

Harb had filed the lawsuit against Moussa for insinuating that he provided American embassy officials with intelligence, established the Democratic Front Party through illegitimate means and turned against the regime in hopes of being appointed chief editor of state-run Al-Ahram newspaper.

In a column published by Al-Ahram entitled “The Counter-Revolution,” Harb spoke of a “talk show host” as an example of the counter-revolution who recently took up the profession and whose “security connections” are well known to his viewers.

Harb referenced Moussa’s declaration that the January 25, 2011 revolution was a conspiracy carried out by a group of paid youth trained in Serbia.

In December, Moussa was also sentenced to six months in prison for insulting lawyer Tarek al-Awady, whom Moussa claimed to have broken into a police station last September.

Despite the convictions, Moussa recently made an appearance as part of the media convoy accompanying President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on his trip to Germany. Many criticized the state for allowing someone who has been setenced to prison by court to travel outside the country, especially at a time when activists have been banned from travelling on no clear grounds.