Learn about penalty of insult on social media

CAIRO – 19 February 2019: According to article 303 of the Penal Code, the penalty of insult on social media amounts to a fine of LE 5-15,000, said lawyer Mohamed Ibrahim Monday.

Ibrahim added that insulting someone or his/ her religion, and insulting the president of the republic can be punished by imprisonment.

“One can get a copy of the insulting post on social media then head to the internet police to pursue the legal process,” he added.

On May 29, the Egyptian authorities arrested a Lebanese citizen, Mona al-Mazbouh, over posting a video on her Facebook account talking about several situations that triggered her anger while spending her vacation in Cairo.

In June 2018, Egyptian Attorney General Nabil Sadek ordered to hold Mazbouh in detention for four days pending investigations over accusation of “insulting Egyptian people and the president”, amid calls from the Egyptian parliamentarians to bar her from entering Egypt.

Mazbouh also described President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi as “unjust”, spitting on the Egyptians and insulting Egyptian women.

On May 11, security forces arrested a woman called Amal Fathy Abdel-Tawab who was reported to be a member of April 6 Youth Movement and was detained for six days pending investigations over accusations of defamation, insulting the Egyptian state and assaulting Banque Misr employees.

Abdel-Tawab started a live video on her Facebook page, while angrily-telling a situation that happened to her as she was finishing the procedures of reactivating her bank account; she started to mention several bureaucratic situations that delayed the procedures for a long time.