Forty-eight hours after a court ruling found Egyptian veteran actor ‘Ādil Imām guilty of disdaining religion and upheld and earlier sentence to put him in jail for three months, the al-‘Ajūzah Court of Misdemeanor on Thursday (April 26) turned down another case filed by lawyer ‘Asrān Mansūr against Imām, directors Sharīf ‘Arafah, Muhammad Fādil and Nādir Jalāl and scenarists Wahīd Hāmid and Linīn al-Ramlī on the same charges.
The al-Haram Court of Misdemeanor had handed down a ruling on Wednesday (April 25) upholding an earlier sentence to imprison Imām, a popular comedian and whose movies are usually box office hits, for three months and forcing him to pay a fine of LE1,000 (roughly $90) on charges of disdaining religion in his films.
Protests marches were staged by several Egyptian actors and filmmakers who chanted slogans and criticized what they called “the forces of darkness” and likened the tracking down of artists in the courts of law over their innovative works as “neo-Inquisition”. [Hātim Jamāl al-Dīn and Nuhá ‘Āshūr, al-Shurūq al-Jadīd, April 27, p. 1] Read text in Arabic
