CAIRO - An Egyptian court on Saturday threw out a lawsuit calling for a popular television satirist to be banned for insulting the president and Islam, but he still faces a criminal investigation on similar charges.
Critics of the government see the cases against Bassem Youssef, who has cited US satirist Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" as a model, as part of a crackdown on dissent. This is denied by the government of President Mohamed Morsi and its Islamist allies, the Muslim Brotherhood.
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console.log("catid body is "+catID);if(catID==120){document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://player.anyclip.com/anyclip-widget/lre-widget/prod/v1/src/lre.js'; script.setAttribute('pubname','jpostcom'); script.setAttribute('widgetname','0011r00001lcD1i_12258'); document.getElementsByClassName('divAnyClip')[0].appendChild(script);}else if(catID!=69 && catID!=2){ document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none"; var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://static.vidazoo.com/basev/vwpt.js'; script.setAttribute('data-widget-id','60fd6becf6393400049e6535'); document.getElementsByClassName('divVidazoo')[0].appendChild(script); }A Cairo administrative court rejected a petition brought by Mahmoud Abu el-Aineen, an Islamist lawyer, to ban Youssef's program and shut down independent television channel CBC, legal sources said.
Youssef, who rose to fame with a satirical online show after the uprising that swept the previous president, Hosni Mubarak, from power in 2011, had been released on bail on Sunday after the prosecutor-general issued a warrant for his arrest.
The prosecutor also accused Youssef of insulting Islam and undermining Morsi's standing.
