TV host sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for inciting overthrow of gov’t

The Dokki Criminal Court sentenced Moataz Matar, a news anchor at the Islamist-leaning El-Sharq satellite channel, to 10 years in prison on Tuesday on charges of “inciting the overthrow of the political regime and disseminating false information.”

Matar, who presents his TV show from Turkey, was issued the sentence in absentia, along with fines amounting to LE700. According to Egyptian judicial sources cited in a host of local media outlets, El-Sharq channel propagates terrorism.

The state-owned Al-Ahram news portal claimed that, through his TV channel, Matar was also involved in “promoting murder” and other acts of violence against Egypt’s security forces, as well as “instigating against state institutions,” destabilizing national security and promoting sectarian strife.

The Istanbul-based satellite channel is closely aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, which was forced from power in a military-led takeover on July 3, 2013 and was subsequently classified as a terrorist organization on December 25 of that same year. El-Sharq began broadcasting from Turkey in April 2014.

In a statement issued on their official Facebook page, El-Sharq condemned the Dokki Criminal Court’s ruling. The statement added that this sentence is “a clear indicator of the ongoing violations of freedom of expression and opinions” being perpetrated by “coup authorities to silence any opposition voices.”

Matar is the latest in a growing list of journalists and media personnel that Egyptian courts have sentenced to imprisonment.

In a statement issued late last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) confirmed the imprisonment of at least 18 media workers, reporting that “Egypt’s imprisonment of journalists is at an all-time high.”

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) issued a report in April of this year ranking Egypt number 158 out of 180 states on the RSF index of global press freedom.