An Egyptian court on Wednesday postponed the retrial of Lina Attalah, the editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, one of Egypt’s last prominent independent news sites, after her lawyers asked for the judge to be replaced.
The New Cairo Misdemeanour Court put the first session of the retrial back by a week, to 18 November, so that the Court of Appeals can decide on the defence’s request to recuse the judge. Attalah faces charges of publishing false news and running a website without a licence.
Her defence asked Judge Mohamed Mubarak to step aside because he had already ruled against her, in a separate case, on 27 October. In that ruling, handed down after a single hearing, he fined her 3 million Egyptian pounds (about $56,200) and ordered Mada Masr to close.
That closure order is itself under appeal, with the Misdemeanour Appeals Court due to hear the challenge on 25 November. In the retrial case, Attalah was sentenced in her absence in 2024 to a year in prison. She only learned of that sentence on 27 October, as she was being released following the ruling that shut down her news site.
Mada Masr, along with other independent websites, says it has sought a licence under a 2018 media law that introduced the requirement, but has received no formal decision. Human rights groups see the case as a litmus test of whether independent journalism can survive in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country.
Attalah’s lawyers said last month that the court had rejected their requests to review the case file and to submit additional evidence, and had instead appointed a lawyer for her against her objections. Egypt’s Supreme Judicial Council later rejected suggestions that the trial was unfair.
Egyptian authorities have not responded to Reuters’ requests for comment on the case or on wider questions of press freedom. They have repeatedly said the state is committed to freedom of expression, but that media must operate within the law and respect national security.
Sources: Reuters, “Egyptian court postpones retrial of independent news site’s editor” (11 November 2026), https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/egyptian-court-postpones-retrial-independent-news-sites-editor-2026-11-11/ ; Zawia3, citing the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, https://zawia3.com/en/recusal-request/
File photo: Lina Attalah in 2024; this is not a photograph from the court hearing.
