The New Cairo Court rejected on Saturday the appeal submitted by Salafi preacher and TV anchor Abdallah Badr. The court upheld his imprisonment, sentencing him to one year in prison and fining him EGP 20,000 for libel against actress Elham Shahin. Mamdouh Ismail, Abdallah Badr‘s lawyer said: "I reject the verdict and we intend to appeal again." Badr first attempted to appeal the verdict in December, but his initial appeal was rejected in April. Shahin filed a lawsuit against him for defamation and for insulting her on his television show broadcast on Al-Hafez satellite channel. Shahin also filed another suit with the Administrative Judiciary Court demanding the closure of Al-Hafez channel. The administrative court responded by suspending Badr's show and banning him from making television appearances for a month in January. Badr had filed a counter-suit against Shahin accusing her of spreading immoral behaviour but the court ruled against him. Shahin's lawyer used the two verdicts against Badr and the rejection of his lawsuit as evidence that Badr's sentence should be upheld. In an earlier interview, Malek Adly, a lawyer at the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, said Badr used mosques and his show to insult people. He said that Badr had insulted many artists in Egypt and that Elham Shahin had successfully proven the illegality of his actions.
