CAIRO: Egyptian police arrested an Islamist television show host yesterday after a court sentenced him to a year in prison for slandering an actress, a police official said.
Police stormed Abdullah Badr’s apartment early in the morning in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya and took him into custody so he could start serving the sentence, the official said.
A court had convicted the fiery preacher and television show host for insulting actress Elham Shahin, who had sued him. It also fined him 20,000 pounds ($2,900).
According to press reports, he had accused her of promiscuity. The television station that hosted Badr’s show, Al Hafez, airs religious programming and talk shows.
Kuwait court jails Saudi for five years
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s lower court yesterday sentenced a Saudi man to five years in jail for insulting the emir on Twitter, a human rights activist said.
The court passed the sentence on Abdulaziz Al Mutairi in absentia, as his whereabouts are currently unknown, the director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Mohammad Al Humaidi, said.
The court also ruled that Mutairi should be deported after completing his jail term, Humaidi added.
Under Kuwaiti law, Mutairi can challenge the ruling immediately after he presents himself and the lower court is obliged to review his case.
Turkish Airlines bans bright lipstick
ANKARA: Turkish Airlines has banned air hostesses from wearing brightly-coloured lipsticks such as red or pink, a move which has sparked fierce debate as the government is accused of trying to Islamise the country, local media reported yesterday.
Numerous women posted pictures of themselves wearing bright red lipstick on social media websites to protest at the measure, part of a new aesthetics code for stewardesses working for Turkey’s main airline.
The lipstick ban is the latest in a string of conservative measures adopted by the airline, which have sparked the ire of fiercely secular Turks. “This measure is an act of perversion. How else could you describe it?” said Gursel Tekin, vice-president of the main opposition party CHP.
Agencies
