Cairo: An Egyptian court on Wednesday reduced to three months a three-year jail sentence earlier given by a lower court to a blogger, who had sparked national anger for alleging that a third of married women in the country are unfaithful.
The Cairo Appeals Court granted the appeal filed by Taymour Al Subki, an administrator of a Facebook page, against the three-year jail term issued last month by a misdemeanour court against him on charges of spreading false news, disturbing public peace and slandering the nation’s women.
After the verdict announcement on Wednesday, Al Subki’s lawyer, Shadi Abdul Latif, said that his client would be released from prison in a month, having already served two months since his detention in the high-profile case.
There was no official comment.
At his trial that opened in February, Al Subki, 37, pleaded not guilty, saying that his remarks on a TV show had been misunderstood and taken out of context.
The interview with Al Subki on private television station CBC was originally broadcast in December. But it triggered public controversy after a part of it was uploaded on social media more than a month later in which he claimed that married women, especially in the ultraconservative Upper Egypt, cheat on their husbands.
The show was briefly halted and CBC issued a public apology.
The remarks prompted dozens of lawsuits against Al Subki. Some men from Upper Egypt reportedly threatened to kill him in retaliation.
Speaking ill of women is a social stigma in Upper Egypt where it could result in the so-called honour killings.
