Editor Whose Article Caused Riots Gets 3 Years

The editor of a newspaper whose story on a monk’s alleged sex-and-blackmail scheme sparked riots was convicted of undermining public security and sentenced to three years in prison.

In its ruling against Mamdouh Mahran, editor of the small weekly Al Nabaa, the court did not say whether the allegations in the article were true, but it may issue a more comprehensive verdict later.

Mahran, who was not in court, published a story in June claiming that a Coptic Orthodox monk had sex with women in a southern Egyptian monastery and then blackmailed them.