Egypt bans Almesryoon newspaper’s latest edition

Egypt’s state security prosecution postponed the questioning of Almesryoon newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief Gamal Sultan, and his brother Mahmoud Sultan, who is also the outlet’s executive editor-in-chief, to Saturday.

The two journalists’ lawyer learnt about the postponement decision on Tuesday while they were at the prosecution’s office to find out why they had been summoned and what charges had been laid against them.

According to Gamal, the prosecution’s representative refused to give the lawyers any details about the charges and agreed to postpone the questioning to Saturday.

The Press Syndicate’s lawyer and members of the syndicate’s council will attend the interrogation, according to Amr Badr, a member of the Press Syndicate.

Read: Egypt speaks for itself

Sultan added that authorities have recently attempted to hinder the work of Almesryoon first by blocking its website in May. Content is however updated daily on the news site for access outside Egypt.

Egyptian authorities have also repeatedly delayed the weekly issue’s print run, expressing objections about the paper’s content. This week’s issue was banned from publication.

On Sunday, Sultan said that the state-owned Ahram Printing House refused to print Almesryoon’s weekly issue based on orders that it received from “security agencies”.

The first page of the banned issue included headlines about whether former prime minister and presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik, who hails from the Egyptian military, would run against President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in the 2018 presidential election. Another headline was about the absence of judicial supervision on the upcoming election. A third headline was about a report in Israeli media about alleged Israeli offers to buy parts of the Sinai Peninsula.