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Egyptian satirist investigating for 'insulting the armed forces and Al-Sisi'

April 5, 2014 at 4:09 pm

Egyptian satirist Bassem Yusuf and the director of MBC Egypt channel which airs his show are to be investigated on charges of “insulting the armed forces, President Adly Mansour and Defence Minister Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi as well as threatening the country’s security and stability” under the orders of Egypt’s public prosecutor Hisham Barakat.


The London based Al-Hayat newspaper said on Friday that “unidentified sources” claimed that Yusuf’s first episode “insulted the public’s order, the Egyptians’ will and the armed forces and ridiculed the Defence Minister.”

The plaintiff claimed that “ridiculing the president undermines his status before the world” and called to “open an urgent judicial investigation into the first episode’s content and to issue an arrest warrant for Yusuf and to charge the channel’s owner of involvement in insulting the state’s symbols and the president.”

Egyptian CBC suspended Yusuf’s show in November after only one episode, during which he criticised the defence minister and the Muslim Brotherhood. The channel’s administration justified its decision claiming “Yusuf’s show violated the channel’s policy.”