Egypt’s public prosecutor on Saturday ordered the arrest of popular satirist Bassem Youssef over alleged insults to Islam and to President Mohamed Mursi, state news agency MENA reported.
Judicial sources told AFP that several complaints had been filed against Youssef, whose razor-sharp humor — delivered on his weekly television program Albernameg (The Show) — has spared few public figures.
Dubbed the Egyptian Jon Stewart, Youssef has repeatedly poked fun at the ruling Islamists and Mursi in particular.
The soaring number of legal complaints against journalists has cast doubt on Mursi’s commitments to freedom of expression — a key demand of the popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011.