Egypt TV Host Gets Jail Term For Insulting President

An Egyptian talk-show host faces a four-month jail term after a court convicted him of insulting President Mohamed Morsi, state media reported on Monday.

Tawfiq Okasha, whose show appears on his own channel, can appeal the sentence after paying 100 Egyptian pounds ($16.39) bail, a source in the court in southern Egypt said.

“Mursi is the President of all Egyptians and insulting him is like insulting the whole nation,” Nasr El-Din Mahmoud Maghazy, who filed the case against Okasha, told Reuters.

The substance of the offending insult was not immediately available from court sources.

Okasha is known to have close ties to security officials in power during the reign of former longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in a popular revolt last year, and for making anti-Islamic diatribes on air.

He faces another lawsuit in the criminal court on accusations of inciting people to kill Mursi.

The prosecutor had ordered Okasha’s channel taken off the air but a court on Saturday said it could resume broadcasting.

Okasha had previously said in one of his talk shows that Mursi and his group “deserve to get killed”.

Reuters