11 October 2015•Update: 13 October 2015
CAIRO
An Egyptian court has upheld a five-year jail sentence for a controversial television presenter and Islamic researcher convicted of “defaming” religion, a judicial source has said.
In May, Islam Beheiry was sentenced to five years behind bars for defaming religion after questioning the credibility of the Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) on his “With Islam” television show.
Beheiry later appealed the verdict, but the court upheld the sentence on Saturday, according to the judicial source.
In April, Cairo’s Al-Azhar, the highest seat of religious learning in the Sunni-Muslim world, filed a lawsuit against Beheiry for promoting “ideas that violate the basic tenets of Islam”.
His program was later suspended by the television channel that carries it.
