BREAKING: Court gives Egypt’s Press Syndicate head two-year jail sentence

An Egyptian court has sentenced Egypt’s Press Syndicate chairman, Yehia Kalash, and two other board members to two years in prison and set bail at 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($615.3).

Kalash, along with union secretary-general Gamal Abdel-Reheem and undersecretary Khaled El-Balshy, was referred to court in June for harbouring journalists Mahmoud El-Sakka and Amr Badr who were staging a sit-in to protest warrants issued for their arrest.

Police raided the Egyptian journalism syndicate in Cairo on May 2 and arrested two opposition journalists who had sought shelter from arrest inside.