Court claims no jurisdiction in lawsuit against Egyptian exiles

A court in Egypt has decreed that it has no jurisdiction to rule on a case against journalists supportive of ousted President Mohamed Morsi and other exiles. The defendants in question are currently in Qatar. The court explained its decision on the grounds that the journalists in the case do not have a criminal record in Egypt.

A source told the Anadolu press agency that the lack of jurisdiction means that it is up to the lawyer who had originally filed the suit to lodge it at another court in another judicial district.

The lawsuit was filed against journalists, politicians, Jamaa Islamiya leaders and Muslim Brotherhood leaders who moved to Qatar following the July 3 coup against Morsi. Most have since appeared frequently on Aljazeera satellite channel.

The defendants include sports analyst Alaa Sadeq; Judge Walid Sharabi; writers Wael Qandil, Mohamed Al-Gawadi and Mohamed Al-Qodousi; Jamaa Islamiya leader Tareq Al-Zumor; Assem Abdel Magued; Dr Youssef Al-Qaradawi; Mahmoud Ezzat; Mahmoud Hussein; Essam Haddad; Yahya Hamed; Hatem Azzam; Mahmoud Ghozlan; Mohamed Mahsoub; Ahmed Abdel Aty; Khaled Abdallah; Gomaa Amin; Ashraf Badr Eddin; Ramy Jan; and some Aljazeera journalists including Ayman Azzam and Ahmed Mansour.