The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) strongly condemns the conviction and sentence of Lina Attalah, Editor-in-Chief at Mada Masr, on 27 October 2026, on a charge of operating a website without a licence, along with the order for the closure of Mada Masr, one of the last independent online news outlets operating in Egypt. The ICJ calls for Attalah’s conviction to be quashed and for the order shutting down Mada Masr to be lifted.
.هذا البيان الصحفي متوفر باللغة العربية أيضاً
“The use of unduly expedited and unfair criminal proceedings against Lina Attalah and Mada Masr demonstrates the lengths to which the Egyptian authorities will go to intimidate journalists and to stifle independent media,” said Saïd Benarbia, ICJ’s Middle East and North Africa Programme Director. “The closure of Mada Masr, ordered just after the arbitrary detention of the entire editorial team of Matsda2sh, gives rise to grave concern that Egypt is intent on annihilating independent online media platforms.”
Since the introduction of changes to media licensing regulations in 2018, Mada Masr’s staff have made repeated attempts to obtain a website licence from the Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR). Their efforts were either left unanswered or were rejected without the SCMR providing adequate notice or reasons for its decisions.
Then, on 19 October 2026, the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) issued a summons to Attalah to appear for interrogation on 21 October in Case No. 9072 of 2026. The summons failed to inform her of the exact nature of the allegations in relation to which she was being investigated, thus hindering her ability to prepare her defence.
On 21 October, Attalah appeared before the SSSP, where she was questioned and accused of operating Mada Masr’s website without a licence and publishing “false news with the aim of disturbing public peace” as a result of Mada Masr’s reporting on protests that had taken place in Egyptian prisons the previous week. The SSSP then released Attalah on conditional bail of EGP 100,000 (approximately USD 1,780).
The following day, the SSSP referred Attalah to trial before the Ninth Circuit of the New Cairo Misdemeanour Court on one charge of “establishing, managing and operating a website without a licence”, under Articles 6 and 105 of Law No. 180 of 2018 Regulating the Press and Media.
Only five days later, on 27 October 2026, during the sole trial hearing in the case, the trial judge reportedly denied Attalah’s defence team’s requests for adequate time to examine the case file and access the evidence purportedly substantiating the charge. Additionally, despite eight of Attalah’s chosen lawyers being present at Court and willing to act on her behalf, and despite her objecting to being assigned a court-appointed lawyer, the trial judge unilaterally appointed defence counsel. Moreover, the trial judge reportedly refused to record Attalah’s and her chosen lawyers’ objections to the appointment of court-appointed counsel in the official hearing record.
The court subsequently convicted Attalah of “establishing, managing and operating a website without a licence”, sentencing her to a fine of EGP 3 million (approximately 54,000 USD) and ordering the closure of the Mada Masr website and the confiscation of its equipment. Following the verdict, National Security Agency officers detained Atallah at the courthouse for seven hours before releasing her following payment of the fine. Although article 463 of Egypt’s Criminal Procedure Code provides for the immediate enforcement of fines, any deprivation of liberty must have a lawful basis and comply with Article 9 of the ICCPR. Attalah’s own defence lawyers were not informed whether the court had issued an order for her detention, raising serious concern about its legal basis and her ability to challenge it.
In light of the above, the ICJ is concerned that Attalah’s prosecution, trial, conviction and sentence were marred by serious violations of her right to a fair trial, including:
- The right to adequate time and facilities for the preparation of a defence as a result of the trial judge’s refusal to permit the defence team sufficient access to the case file. Additionally, the unduly expedited criminal proceedings, which, contrary to defence applications for additional time, lasted only eight days from interrogation to verdict, further hampered Attalah’s ability to mount a substantive defence to the charge;
- The right to be represented by legal counsel of one’s own choosing, given the Court’s appointment of a defence lawyer against Attalah’s wishes and despite her chosen lawyers being present in Court on the day; and
- The right to equality before the court in the determination of the charges. In particular, the ICJ is concerned that the criminal proceedings against Attalah were a form of persecution for political opinions that Attalah directly or indirectly expressed as Editor-in-Chief at Mada Masr. Indeed, the Egyptian authorities initiated the criminal case against her only one week after Mada Masr published materials concerning prison protests in Egypt, with the SSSP even questioning Attalah on these publications during interrogation. Additionally, the prosecuting authorities’ subsequent decision to try her, and her conviction for operating a website without a licence, despite the authorities either being aware of Mada Masr’s numerous efforts to obtain a licence or being in a position to ascertain as much, indicate that the charge was pretextual, and thus again that the criminal proceedings against her were politically motivated.
As a result, the ICJ calls on the Egyptian authorities to immediately quash Attalah’s wrongful conviction and sentence, to lift the order for the closure of the Mada Masr website and to end the crackdown on the right to freedom of expression, and on independent media and journalists.
Background
The prosecution of Attalah marks the sixth criminal case brought against Mada Masr, its journalists and editors in six years. Indeed, the case forms part of a broader crackdown on independent journalism in Egypt, including the recent prosecution of members of the Matsda2sh media platform on fabricated “terrorism”-related charges. Since 2017, the Egyptian authorities have also blocked Mada Masr’s website to users based in Egypt.
Contact
Saïd Benarbia, Director, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; t: +41 22 979 3800, e: said.benarbia@icj.org
Nour Al Hajj, Regional Communications & Advocacy Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; e: nour.alhajj@icj.org
