Egyptian security forces detained prominent Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, the chief editor of leading independent news website Mada Masr , after her trial hearing on Tuesday (October 27, 2026), her outlet reported.
Attalah’s eight-person defence team had made procedural requests denied by the court, which then announced it had appointed its own lawyer for the journalist. A court fined Ms. Her trial marks what rights groups have described as a sharp escalation in Cairo’s crackdown on press freedom. Hossam Bahgat, head of prominent rights group the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), was present at the court and gave AFP an account of events. Attalah and her lawyers, before security officers also entered the room. Ms.
Attalah three million Egyptian pounds (around $53,400) for operating the website without a licence, the maximum possible penalty for the misdemeanour she was charged with, and ordered Mada’s closure. After a brief recess during the hearing Tuesday (October 27), the defence team said the judge ordered the room cleared except for Ms.
“Security personnel then surrounded Attalah, lifted her off the ground and took her out of the courtroom, where she remains in custody in the courthouse,” said the independent media, which says it has not received a response from authorities about its licence application since 2023. “In a move that astonished all those present, the judge recorded in the official court minutes that the court had appointed a lawyer from the Lawyers’ Syndicate to represent the defence,” Mr. Bahgat said.
