Print journalist covering MENA. Bylines in @CSmonitor @Newlinesmag @AJEnglish @TIME @newhumanitarian and others. Formerly AJE features correspondent for MENA
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Joined November 2013
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Mat Nashed retweeted
Dozens were killed and injured in intense airstrikes on Nyala, South Darfur, Monday evening. The Sudanese army has escalated air operations, targeting RSF positions, commanders' homes, and infrastructure in an unprecedented aerial campaign.
sudantribune.com/article/320…
#Sudan #Nyala #Darfur #SudanCrisis #RSF
Mat Nashed retweeted
The current onslaught on the last remnants of independent media in Egypt, even within its highly closed system, is unprecedented. Both Maatsadash and Mada Masr published very serious reports and more or less got off the hook. Why now? I have no answer, just theories:
- A new sheriff in town, controlling the security apparatus and sees things differently.
- What is planned to happen in Egypt politically over the coming months or years necessitates a complete media gag.
Mat Nashed retweeted
Mat Nashed retweeted
As Attalah told me last week, Mada Masr had in fact dillgently sought to obtain licencing and was denied--a tactic to keep independent media like hers in a perpetual grey zone until they are deemed to have overstepped. thetimes.com/article/a4b9e07…
Following an absolute farcical trial that makes a mockery of the rule of law, an Egyptian court has fined @Linaattalah LE 3 million and ordered the closure of @MadaMasr, Egypt's leading independent media outlet, relied on by the world's diplomats, researchers, and scholars.
Mat Nashed retweeted
Lina was detained after the court rejected to hear our defense, appointed another lawyer despite 8 of our lawyers being present, then issued a snap judgment that comes with a 3 million pound fine and the closure of our website.
Mada Masr Editor-in-Chief Lina Attalah was fined LE3 million by the New Cairo Misdemeanor Court, which convicted her on charges of managing an unlicensed website, issuing an order for the website’s closure. Attalah was taken into custody after the issue of the ruling.
Tuesday’s session at the ninth circuit of the New Cairo Misdemeanor Court, presided over by judge Mohamed Mubarak, was temporarily suspended for deliberations after Attalah’s defense counsel requested time to review the case file.
After the court returned from deliberations, the judge ordered the courtroom cleared of everyone except Attalah and her defense counsel, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights’ executive director Hossam Bahgat, who was also present, told Mada Masr. The room then filled with plainclothes officers and guards, with a National Security Agency officer in attendance, he added.
The presiding judge and a Supreme State Security Prosecution representative returned to the session and the judge announced that the court has decided to stand by its rejection of all the procedural arguments presented by the defense, including requests to bring in any documentation or hear any witnesses.
The judge then asked the defense team to present its plea. The counsel insisted that it would not submit a plea as long as its requests were unanswered by the court.
The judge then abruptly asked for a lawyer unknown to any member of the defense counsel to be brought in, “in a move that astonished all those present,” said Bahgat, and announced that the court decided to appoint a lawyer for Attalah.
At that point, all members of the defense counsel cried out to reject the court’s appointment of a lawyer when the eight chosen lawyers were present. Attalah herself spoke to say she did not accept the court-appointed lawyer acting on her behalf, an objection the judge refused to have recorded in the session’s minutes.
"In an even more shocking move,” said Bahgat, the judge himself began to log down the requests of the court-appointed lawyer, without the lawyer having said a word. The judge then read out the conviction amid shouts and protests from the defense counsel.
The judge sentenced Attalah to the maximum possible penalty: a LE3 million fine, the closure of Mada Masr’s website and the confiscation of its property.
Security personnel then surrounded Attalah, lifted her off the ground and took her out of the courtroom, where she remains in custody in the courthouse.
Mat Nashed retweeted
Following an absolute farcical trial that makes a mockery of the rule of law, an Egyptian court has fined @Linaattalah LE 3 million and ordered the closure of @MadaMasr, Egypt's leading independent media outlet, relied on by the world's diplomats, researchers, and scholars.
Mat Nashed retweeted
If 38 percent of people straight up admit they’re bigoted against Muslims, surely the number of people who won’t admit it is even higher. Impossible to examine this race without calling attention to the role Islamophobia has played in it.
New Michigan poll by MSU, by YouGov: ippsr.msu.edu/news/msu-poll-…
Benson leads 53.3% to 40.9% for governor.
El-Sayed is 48% to 45.5% for Senate.
"About 38% of voters say a Muslim candidate would make them less likely to offer support."
Mat Nashed retweeted
No, the Dahiye Doctrine he coauthored is much more than this: it represents an outright war crime. It also regards civilians in “supportive areas” as legitimate targets. It’s not just about blowing up buildings; it’s focused on eliminating people, non combatants, as well.
Mat Nashed retweeted
Et la France reste silencieuse face au rôle des Emirats Arabes Unis dans le conflit, y compris dans l'envoi de combattants colombiens à El Fasher par une entreprise émiratie proche des plus hauts niveaux du gouvernement émirati: blogs.mediapart.fr/hrw/blog/…
A year ago, El-Fasher, the historic capital of Darfur, was taken by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The city was the scene of mass crimes against civilian populations, targeted on an ethnic basis.
On this painful day, our heart is with the people of Sudan. France bows to the memory of the victims.
Our compassion is accompanied by a constant determination to act to break the cycle of impunity in Sudan.
Mat Nashed retweeted
Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi's unprecedented decision has significant implications for Egypt's political landscape, the balance of power within the regime and the military's influence over Egypt's people.
Read @AAboudouh's (@CH_MENAP) latest analysis for Chatham House.
Expert comment | bit.ly/3W4snCU |
Mat Nashed retweeted
Sudan’s Emergency Lawyers group has proposed establishing urgent relief centers across the country following warnings from Western nations about an impending famine. Around 19.5 million people in Sudan are currently facing acute food insecurity.
sudantribune.com/article/320…
#Sudan #Famine #HumanitarianCrisis
Mat Nashed retweeted
As more RSF defect, the sanitation campaign will continue in earnest.
Soon even Hemedti, we'll be told, was just a pawn - and the RSF will rejoin the SAF with immunity.
After all, they are not each others' greatest threat/greater enemy. Civilians are.
#KeepEyesOnSudan
#Sudan
Mat Nashed retweeted
I know up is down these days but serenading the UN for a position when you undermined the same institution and rejected the UN Panel of Experts’ findings on UAE links to the RSF to run cover for your government’s calamitous role in Sudan’s war is an outrage and an insult.
I've spent much of my life in and around the @UN. What stays with me most is its people: colleagues who, in the world's hardest places, deliver food and medicine, protect civilians and help parties take the first steps towards peace.
The UN was never meant to agree with the world. It was built to help the world agree. This UN Day, I remain confident in what the United Nations can achieve - and in the future we can build when it acts early, supports its personnel, and measures success by what changes on the ground. #UNDay
Mat Nashed retweeted
From Nyala to Omdurman, hunger is spreading as prices soar, the rainy season fails, medicines run short, and healthcare services deteriorate.
The deadly triangle of hunger, disease, and war will continue to claim lives unless peace is achieved and this war ends. #KeepEyesOnSudan
Mat Nashed retweeted
The Sudanese government has moved to muzzle out dissent, threatening freedom of expression and journalists. Article 51 of the Sudanese penal code of 1991 'waging war against the state', a crime punishable by death, has been amended to include "electronic and media publishing" .
Mat Nashed retweeted
This is the single biggest story in #Sudan right now and it's not getting anywhere near enough attention
Sudan faces the Four Horsemen: War, Famine, Death and Conquest - in an apocalyptic spiral while authorities deny the issues & global response budgets shrink.
#KeepEyesOnSudan
🚨Just as some #Sudan farmers try to plant after fighting moves on, El Nino is pummeling them with the worst drought in decades.
WFP projects more than 1mln people will enter severe hunger as a result, and is unlikely to be able to help them.
Our story: reuters.com/world/new-famine…
Mat Nashed retweeted
That's the idea!
Criminalising free speech at a time when Burhan's popularity is plummeting (lack of satisfactory response to Egyptian bombing of Sudanese miners plus unchecked cataclysmic inflation).
#KeepEyesOnSudan
#Sudan
The de facto SAF government’s amendment to Article 51 of the Criminal Code expands the scope of the offence of waging war against the state to include media and electronic publishing. We could all be at risk of facing the death penalty simply for reporting.
#KeepEyesOnSudan
Mat Nashed retweeted
The muzzling of Egypt’s last remaining independent media, the arrest of the Matsadaash team, and the case against Mada Masr’s editor-in-chief could signal that something is brewing in the coming days, necessitating a complete media gag by the ruling regime.
Mat Nashed retweeted
Important info on Egypt's growing crackdown on its few remaining independent journalists. I note how a weak international response encouraged Egypt to continue. Failing to stop this will greatly impair our understanding of a strategically critical country at a very sensitive time
Egypt has jailed an entire newsroom and referred @MadaMasr Editor-in-Chief Lina Attalah to trial, in an escalating campaign to silence the country’s remaining independent media.
Read CPJ’s analysis of Egypt’s unprecedented crackdown on the press by @m_medhaat:
cpj.org/2026/10/whos-next-in…
Mat Nashed retweeted
Less than a month after arresting the entire Matsadaash newsroom, the Egyptian govt has now filed baseless charges against the editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, continuing their largest crackdown in years.
This assault on the free press must end NOW. Journalism is not a crime.
CPJ condemns the referral of @MadaMasr Editor-in-Chief Lina Attalah to trial for operating a website without a license that Egyptian authorities have themselves refused to grant for years. Egypt is weaponizing its media law to punish independent journalism and intensify one of its worst crackdowns on the press in years, which began with the arrest of six Matsdaash journalists. It is long past time for Egypt to end this campaign and allow independent media to report freely.
