Bassem Youssef Posts Bail as Egyptian Authorities Press Case

After presenting himself to prosecutors on Sunday morning for questioning that lasted several hours, the satirist, Bassem Youssef, paid the equivalent of $2,200 bail and was released. Prosecutors had issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Youssef on Saturday on charges stemming from statements he had made on his widely watched television show, including that he had insulted Mr. Morsi, denigrated Islam and disturbed public peace.

Human rights advocates and members of Egypt’s political opposition seized on the warrant as evidence that Egypt’s first freely elected leader had grown impatient with his many critics and was using authoritarian tactics to limit freedom of expression. Similar criticisms were leveled at the government last week, after the public prosecutor issued warrants for five anti-Islamist political activists for things they had written on social media.

Since Mr. Morsi took office in June, prosecutors in at least two dozen cases have been asked to look into charges of insulting the president, according to a human rights lawyer, Gamal Eid. Few of those cases, however, have resulted in arrest warrants.

Mr. Eid said the decision to order bail for Mr. Youssef indicated that the case was continuing, and he raised the possibility that the satirist could be summoned to answer more questions or be referred to court. “He could have been released without bail,” Mr. Eid said. “This is legal, but we think it’s arbitrary.”

In a statement from Mr. Morsi’s media office on Sunday, the president seemed to distance himself from the investigation, saying that the public prosecutor, Talaat Ibrahim, whom Mr. Morsi appointed in November, “operates independently from the presidency.”

“The current legal system allows for individual complaints to be brought to the prosecutor general,” the statement said. “All the current well-publicized claims were initiated by citizens rather than the presidency.”

The statement also said the presidency could not comment on active legal cases, but “respects freedom of speech and the press.”

At the very least, the interrogation of Mr. Youssef seemed to represent a public relations misstep for the government. Mr. Youssef, a heart surgeon who volunteered in a Tahrir Square field hospital during the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak, has struck a nerve in Egypt with a show that mines Egypt’s chaotic and frequently absurd post-uprising politics.

Sunday was no exception. Mr. Youssef appeared at the High Court wearing an enormous black hat — modeled on one that Mr. Morsi wore while receiving an honorary degree in Pakistan last month. As he waited to be questioned by prosecutors, Mr. Youssef posted sarcastic observations on Twitter, including that the investigators felt the need to ask him about the color of his eyes.

“The officers and the lawyers of the public prosecutors office want to take pictures with me,” he wrote. “Is this the reason for the summons?”

Later, some of the tweets were deleted. A spokesman for Mr. Youssef was not immediately able to say why.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/world/middleeast/bassem-youssef-posts-bail-as-egyptian-authorities-press-case.html?partner=rss&emc=rss