On Wednesday, Ragia Omran, a Mada Masr’s defence team member, said that the complaints submitted to the Public Prosecution by the Nation’s Future Party against the independent news website had reached about 500.

On August 31, Mada Masr published a piece that stated an “expected purge of the party’s leadership.” It added that the expected changes come against severe financial irregularities involving party leaders.

Subsequently, the head of the website, Lina Atallah, and journalists Rana Mamdouh, Bisan Kassab and Sarah Seif El-Din, were summoned to the office of the Public Prosecutor. They were accused of publishing false news, insulting Nation’s Future Party MPs, and setting up a website without a license. Journalists and human rights defenders, including Hussein Abdel Ghani, Rasha Azab, Naglaa Badir, Mahienour Al-Masry and Jasser Abdel Razek, expressed their strong support for the journalists.