A Cairo court has postponed the retrial of journalist Lina Attalah until 18 November after her lawyers sought the removal of the judge assigned to her case.
Attalah, editor-in-chief of an independent Egyptian news outlet, faces charges of publishing false news and operating a website without a licence. The court adjourned the opening hearing on 11 November so that the defence could pursue its request concerning the judge.
The postponement did not decide the charges or resolve the request for a different judge. Attalah’s lawyers argue that the judge has already formed a view of her case because he presided over a separate proceeding against her last month. The defence must set out its reasons for the request, which is to be considered by the Court of Appeal.
An earlier sentence
The retrial concerns a case in which Attalah was sentenced in her absence in 2024. That ruling imposed a one-year prison sentence and a fine of two million Egyptian pounds, and ordered the website closed and its equipment confiscated.
Attalah says she learned of the sentence only on 27 October, while completing release procedures after the separate case. Her defence subsequently challenged the ruling made in her absence, leading to the retrial.
Prosecutors had questioned Attalah in February 2024 about the outlet’s coverage and released her on bail. The decision at Wednesday’s hearing was an adjournment of the retrial, not a new prison sentence.
The separate licensing case
On 27 October, the New Cairo Misdemeanour Court convicted Attalah in a different case of operating a website without a licence. It imposed a fine of three million Egyptian pounds and ordered the outlet’s closure and the confiscation of its equipment. She was detained and subsequently released after the fine was paid.
Her lawyers have appealed against that October ruling. A hearing in the appeal is scheduled for 25 November, a week after the next date in the retrial. The two dates relate to different proceedings and neither is a final decision on the other case.
The defence has challenged the fairness of the October hearing, saying lawyers were denied adequate time to examine the case file and that the court appointed another lawyer despite Attalah’s objections. Egypt’s Supreme Judicial Council rejected suggestions that the proceedings were unfair. It said the defence had been given access to the file and that an appointed lawyer had reviewed it.
The council also said Attalah had waived her right to appeal. Her defence team disputed that assertion, saying she had not given up the right. The appeal has since been scheduled; the disputed accounts of the earlier hearing should not be treated as a finding by the appeal court.
Licensing and press freedom
The United Nations human rights office raised concerns on 10 November about the treatment of independent journalists in Egypt. It said the proceedings involving Attalah raised questions about due process and a fair trial, and called for steps suppressing the outlet’s work to be reversed.
The office also called for the release of six detained journalists from a separate fact-checking newsroom. It said their lawyers had reported ill-treatment and forced confessions and called for those allegations to be investigated.
Egyptian authorities have said they are committed to freedom of expression while maintaining that media organisations must operate within the law and respect national security. The next hearing in Attalah’s retrial is expected to address a case that remains unresolved, alongside the separate appeal against the October judgment.
