Cairo: Egypt’s chief prosecutor on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for a blogger over his controversial TV remarks against rural women, sparking outrage, legal sources said.
Taymour Al Subki claimed on the TV show Possible, aired on private television station CBC, that wives in conservative Upper Egypt are unfaithful to their husbands who work outside the country.
The remarks prompted dozens of lawsuits against Al Subki. The ensuing uproar prompted CBC this week to halt the programme after making an apology to the nation’s women.
Parliamentarians, representing Upper Egypt, also condemned Al Subki and the broadcaster. Some Upper Egyptian men reportedly threatened to kill Al Subki in retaliation.
The prosecution said in a statement that after examining Al Subki’s remarks, they were found to be slanderous and “violated values of the Egyptian society”. He faces charges of insulting and slandering Egypt’s women.
Police are expected to arrest him “within hours”, according to a security source.
Al Subki, 37, administers an online page titled ‘A Diary of an Oppressed Husband’.
He denied he had meant to insult women, saying that his contentious remarks were taken out of context.
“I apologise because my talk, which was taken out of context, has unintentionally angered some people. My mother herself is a native of Upper Egypt,” he said in a statement.
A court in the upper Egyptian province of Minya is due to start trying Al Subki on March 15 in response to one of more than 60 lawsuits filed against him.
