The Ninth Circuit of the New Cairo Misdemeanour Court, presided over by Judge Mohamed Mubarak, fined Mada Masr editor-in-chief Lina Attalah three million Egyptian pounds on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, and ordered the website’s closure and the confiscation of its equipment. Security forces detained Attalah after the ruling in the case over operating an unlicensed website, Mada Masr reported.
The verdict followed the court’s rejection of defence requests and its appointment of another lawyer despite the presence of Attalah’s own legal team and her objection. Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), attended the hearing and described the proceedings to Mada Masr.
Courtroom cleared and defence requests rejected
Bahgat said the court adjourned after the defence insisted on sufficient time to examine the case papers. The judge then ordered everyone out of the courtroom except Attalah and the lawyers representing her.
According to his account, the room subsequently filled with officers and guards in civilian clothes, and a National Security officer arrived. When the presiding judge and the State Security prosecutor returned, the judge announced that the court maintained its rejection of all the defence’s procedural requests, including requests to add documents to the case file and hear witnesses.
The judge instructed the defence to present its arguments. The lawyers maintained that they would not plead while their requests remained unmet. Bahgat said the judge then called in a lawyer unknown to any member of the defence team and announced his appointment to represent Attalah, a move Bahgat described as astonishing to everyone present.
A court-appointed lawyer despite eight defence lawyers being present
The defence protested the appointment, pointing to the presence of Attalah’s eight original lawyers. Attalah herself rejected the appointed lawyer’s representation, but the judge refused to record her objection in the hearing minutes, Bahgat told Mada Masr.
He said the judge then began recording requests on behalf of the appointed lawyer even though that lawyer had not spoken. The judge proceeded to read out the conviction amid protests from the defence team. Bahgat described this step as even more shocking.
The sentence imposed the maximum fine of EGP3 million, alongside closure of Mada Masr and confiscation of its equipment. Security personnel then surrounded Attalah, lifted her off the ground and carried her out of the courtroom, according to the account published by Mada Masr, which said she remained detained at the time of its report.
From questioning to trial within days
Attalah received a summons on October 19, was questioned for more than six hours on October 21 and was released on EGP100,000 bail. She learned of her referral to trial the following day, according to a statement published by EIPR.
Zawia3 previously reported that the proceedings carry case number 11743 of 2026 before the Fifth Settlement Misdemeanour Court, registered as Supreme State Security Case 9072 of 2026. The trial referral concerned licensing alone; the false-news allegation raised during questioning was omitted.
Licence applications that did not end the prosecution
Mada Masr reported, citing its lawyer Hassan Azhari, that applications submitted in 2018 and 2020 received no response. The outlet learned during questioning in 2022 that its application had been rejected. Its latest application, submitted in June 2023, remained unanswered.
The trial forms part of six cases brought against the outlet and its journalists over six years, according to Zawia3’s coverage. The latest summons coincided with Mada Masr joining eight media outlets’ solidarity newsroom to fact-check Egypt Forum 2026, filling the gap left by Matsda2sh’s detained team.
Matsda2sh: an entire newsroom behind bars
Arrests of Matsda2sh’s team began on September 28 and included Mohamed Ashraf Abu Ameira, Abdallah Kadri, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud and Mohamed Adel. They constitute the outlet’s entire Egypt-based team, and EIPR represents them, as Zawia3 documented.
Abu Ameira was the first to appear before prosecutors, on October 3. Questioning lasted about ten hours and ended in a 15-day detention order. His lawyer, Islam Salama, told Zawia3 that the accusations included joining a terrorist group, publishing false news and using an online account, according to its report.
Zawia3 cited EIPR’s account that most of the journalists reported torture and forced, fabricated confessions to prosecutors. In its October 7 statement, the prosecution said there were no visible injuries and forensic examinations of three found no signs of violence. The outlet had denied the security allegations, according to Zawia3’s report.
On October 13, the six journalists’ detention was renewed for 15 days in Supreme State Security Case 8083 of 2026. Zawia3’s coverage cited EIPR’s objection that no evidence had been put to them, and its demands for investigation of the torture complaints and their release.
Separately, Zawia3 reported the government’s October 19 launch of Chat EGYPT, an artificial-intelligence platform for checking news. When that report was published on October 23, Matsda2sh’s Egypt-based team remained in pretrial detention.
