Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered the release of Lina Attalah, founder and editor-in-chief of independent news website Mada Masr, on bail set at EGP 30,000 on 4 August ,after charging her of broadcasting false news and operating an unlicensed website in Case No. 6182 of 2025. 

The prosecution interrogated Attalah for close to three hours based on a National Security Agency report, days after the website published a report  titled “Badr 3: Where Prisoners Face ‘Slow Death’. She was questioned about sources cited in the article, the editorial reasoning behind trusting those sources, and why the article used the term “detainee” in some instances and “prisoner” in others.

Attalah denied the charges, affirming her commitment to journalistic ethics, public interest, and the right to inform authorities of abuse through publication via Mada Masr and its social media platforms. She stressed the website’s news coverage presented all viewpoints — including those of concerned parties, subject-matter experts, and government responses — and pointed out that the Ministry of Interior’s subsequent statement of denial was explicitly cited in the coverage. 

Attalah’s defence team — comprising Hassan El-Azhari, the site’s legal counsel; Hoda Nasrallah, Legal Director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights; and the legal representative of the Journalists’ Syndicate — pleaded that she acted in good faith, upholding the public’s right to be informed. They maintained that publication on Mada Masr is protected by the principles of press freedom and freedom of opinion and expression, as guaranteed by the Constitution. The defence also asserted that there were no grounds for pretrial detention, particularly as the Egyptian Constitution and Press and Media Regulation Law No. 180 of 2018 prohibit detention in publication-related cases.