CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's state prosecutors issued an arrest warrant Saturday for a popular television satirist for allegedly insulting Islam and the country's president, in the latest legal action to take aim at a critic of the nation's Islamist leader.
The warrant against Bassem Youssef is also the latest in a series of legal actions against the comedian, who has come to be known as Egypt's Jon Stewart. Youssef's widely-watched weekly show, "ElBernameg" or The Program, has become a platform for lampooning the government, opposition, media and clerics.
The fast-paced show has attracted a wide viewership, but has also earned itself its fair share of detractors. Youssef has been a frequent target of lawsuits, most of them brought by Islamist lawyers who have accused him of "corrupting morals" or violating "religious principles."
The comedian has faced several court cases in the past, also accusing him of insulting President Mohammed Morsi. One of Youssef's attorneys, Gamal Eid, said this is the first time an arrest warrant has been issued for the comedian.
In a post on his official Twitter account, Youssef said he will hand himself in to the prosecutor's office Sunday. He then added, with his typical sarcasm: "Unless they kindly send a police van today and save me the transportation hassle."
Eid said the warrant fits into a widening campaign against government critics, media personalities, and activists.
"The prosecution has become a tool to go after the regime's opposition and intimidate it," Eid said.
A call to a top aide to the country's chief prosecutor, Hassan Yassin, for comment went unanswered.
Opposition figures have expressed concerns about freedom of expression and assembly for what they call a crackdown on dissent at a time of deep polarization in Egypt's politics.
The political standoff pits Morsi, a Brotherhood veteran, and his Islamist allies in one camp against a mostly secular and liberal opposition backed by moderate Muslims, minority Christians and a large segment of women in the other.
The opposition charges that Morsi and the Brotherhood have failed to tackle any of the nation's most pressing problems and are trying to monopolize power, and breaking promises of inclusiveness. Morsi blames the country's woes on nearly three decades of corruption under his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, and accuses the opposition of stoking unrest for political gain.
On Monday, Egypt's top state prosecutor, Talaat Abdullah, issued arrest warrants for five of Egypt's most prominent democracy advocates and activists over allegations that they instigated violence last week near the Brotherhood's headquarters in Cairo.
It was one of the worst bouts of violence in months, where nearly 200 people were injured in clashes between anti-government protesters and supporters of the Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails.
Morsi harshly criticized his opponents, calling them hired thugs out to derail Egypt's democracy. The Brotherhood also blamed privately-owned media for fanning the violence.
The criticism was followed by a two-day protest by dozens of Islamists outside the studios of TV networks critical of Morsi. The Islamist protesters pelted police and prevented some talk show hosts and guests from going in and out of the complex west of Cairo.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the escalation of anti-press "rhetoric" by Morsi and his supporters and the sit-in outside the media city were "deeply troubling."
The series of prosecutions and arrest warrants come amid a legal challenge to the general prosecutor, whose appointment by Morsi last year was declared void by a court ruling earlier this week.
On Saturday, Egypt's chief prosecutor Talaat Abdullah said he will appeal the court ruling, saying it is "in violation of the constitution and the law," Egypt's state news agency reported. The decision signals a protracted legal battle is likely to ensue, further confusing the legal scene in Egypt.
Already some, including members of the journalist union, have declared they no longer recognize the legitimacy of the prosecutor's decision.
Also on Saturday, an Egyptian rights group said police detained 13 people, including five lawyers, and accused them of assaulting police in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city.
The arrests inside the police station mark a rare instance in which lawyers face potential criminal charges.
The Haqanya Center for Rights said the 13 are accused of insulting security officials, attempting to free other detainees held at the police station, and illegal assembly.
The arrests prompted an angry response from lawyers at Cairo's Bar Association, who demanded an apology from the police.
Mohammed Abdel-Aziz, an attorney, said the lawyers and activists were beaten and assaulted at the station, where they had been since Friday to represent three opposition members reportedly arrested by members of a political party affiliated with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood who handed them to the police.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-issues-arrest-warrant-tv-satirist-132500262.html
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Editor?s note:?Derek?Andersen?is the founder of?Startup Grind, a 40-city community bringing the global startup world together while educating, inspiring, and connecting entrepreneurs. As an?Electronic Arts’ intern eight years ago, I asked Bing Gordon then the chief creative officer?and the only remaining early founding team member, a question about vision. ?How can I know where the puck is going to be?? While he delivered a satisfactory response, two weeks later I received an email from Bing saying, ?I answered that question poorly a few weeks and I wanted to try again.? A few weeks ago?Bing joined me?at Startup Grind in Silicon Valley where he delivered some great advice that has become one of his trademarks. In 2010?Mark Pincus called KPCB general partner Bing Gordon?(look for a bald guy on the front row) one of the world?s ?great CEO coaches? supporting founders on the boards of companies like Amazon, Zynga, Klout, and Zazzle. Here?are some excepts from our recent?interview. Derek: Tell us about your family and where you grew up? BING: So I grew up in a suburb of Detroit.? My dad was a first generation Scotsman and his dad was a janitor.? And he was somebody that believed the grass was always greener and didn?t have, kind of, context or resources.? Thanks, Dad!? We were the first to move in to a subdivision built out of farmlands surrounding Detroit, so I grew up kind of in the creek.? Playing sports with my brother who remembers growing up in the House of Pain. ?So I had a good Midwestern upbringing.? I didn?t work in an office before going to Stanford business school, but I did think I was a pretty damn good teenage caddy. I played hockey and lacrosse at the university level and played both, kind of, for most of my adult life. Derek: What was your plan heading to college? BING: Well I went to Yale thinking I was going to be a math major and a writer, and I got there and Yale was lousy at math and it seemed socially irrelevant, so I kind of became an athlete-near-college-dropout.? I realized I was flunking a third of my classes going into the final.? My proud accomplishments in college other than sports achievements was I wrote poetry.? Kind of light verse, in a coffee shop, and Peter Faulk when he was doing Columbo came, and liked it so much he took
Constant, close contact with your friends. That's the promise of a "Facebook phone". The modified Android OS and mobile homescreen replacement sources tell us Facebook will unveil April 4th pushes your social life to you so fetching it isn't interruptive. The News feed brought us ambient intimacy, but Facebook's homescreen could turn that social graph awareness into a sixth sense.
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Public release date: 29-Mar-2013
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