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CAIRO. — Zamalek president Mortada Mansour has been jailed for one month for verbally insulting the president of bitter Egyptian football rivals Al Ahly.
Mansour, who is also a politician and former member of parliament, had previously used parliamentary immunity to protect himself from such lawsuits.
But after losing an election in late 2020, Al Ahly chairman Mahmoud El Khatib, a legendary former player for the Red Devils, filed a defamation case over a video that appeared on social media and the Zamalek club channel.
Mansour was found guilty and initially sentenced to a year behind bars but that was reduced to one month in August 2022.
However, a further appeal has now been rejected and Mansour has been jailed.
According to Egyptian law, he will not be able to return to his position as president because anyone convicted of a crime judged to impact reputation, honesty, honour or integrity is not entitled to obtain or occupy a public position. It is not the first time that Mansour has landed himself in hot water with some of his comments.
In 2007, he was sentenced to three years in jail by a criminal court in Cairo for insulting court officials and calling them corrupt, while in 2018 the Confederation of African Football (CAF) banned the 70-year-old from all football-related activity for a year following comments about CAF officials.
He was also a vocal critic of Mark Clattenburg, the former English referee who was briefly in charge of the Egyptian Referees Committee.
Zamalek and Al Ahly, both based in Cairo, have long been two of the dominant forces in African football.
Ah Ahly have been crowned African champions 10 times, more than any other side, with Zamalek joint-second on the list with five titles. — BBC Sport Africa
Online Reporter