File Photo: Egyptian publisher and liberal activist Hisham Kassem. Photo courtesy Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
In September 2023, a Cairo misdemeanour court sentenced Kassem to six months in prison for insulting former Minister of Labour Kamal Abu-Eita and fined him EGP 20,000.
The court acquitted Kassem of another charge related to "disturbing the authorities."
An appeal court upheld the sentence on 8 October.
Kassem was a co-founder of Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper and the Cairo Times.
He is the head of the trustee board of the recently-formed opposition Liberal Current.
In July 2023, Abu-Eita filed a libel and slander lawsuit against Kassem for a Facebook post that accused him of corruption.
The public prosecution questioned Kassem and ordered his release on an EGP 5,000 bail.
However, Kassem refused to post the bail, saying on X (formerly Twitter) on 20 August that he had been unfairly detained.
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