Officially… a ruling to imprison this artist and fine her!

The Economic Court in Cairo issued its ruling to imprison journalist Maha Al-Saghir for a month and fined her 10,000 pounds, on the grounds of accusing her of violating intellectual property rights by displaying paintings by European artists on a television program and attributing them to herself.

The incident was due to the display of protected European works of art last July without obtaining permission from the rights holders, which the court considered a clear infringement of intellectual property according to investigations and evidence.

The Public Prosecution decided to refer Maha Al-Saghir to criminal trial based on the Intellectual Property Rights Protection Law No. 82 of 2002, after it was proven that she used artistic works without permission.

The crisis came after the Supreme Council for Media Regulation received official complaints from European artistic institutions, which prompted the Council to ban Maha Al-Saghir from appearing in the media for a period of 6 months and to refer the case to the prosecution to take legal measures.

For its part, its legal team defended that the display was for informational and cultural purposes, but the prosecution authorities confirmed that attributing artistic works to themselves constitutes a full-fledged crime, noting the right of those affected to demand civil compensation in accordance with the law.