Egypt Releases Satirist and Vlogger Shady Abu Zeid After 2 Years

Egypt’s Giza court released satirist and vlogger Shady Abu Zeid on Saturday after two years on charges of joining a terrorist group and spreading false news, Associated Press reports.

Attorney Mokhtar Mounir said that Shady Abu Zaid was released from a Cairo police station later on Saturday, but still must report to the police station twice a week.

A photo was posted on Facebook by his sister Roula Abu Zaid confirming the news with siblings and their friends at home after his release.

Abu Zaid was arrested in May 2018 and was charged with joining an outlawed group and spreading false news.

Abu Zeid launched a Youtube channel under the name ‘The Rich Content’, a channel that have almost 20,000 subscribers and over 650,000 views. His Facebook page, however, is more popular with more than 120,000 likes with some of his videos collecting over 150,000 views.

On the fifth anniversary of the 2011 revolution in 2016, Abu Zeid posted a video featuring the now renowned Egyptian actor Ahmed Malek. The two walk around Tahrir Square gifting police officers inflated commodes as balloons decorated with the phrase “from the youth of Egypt to the police on January 25.”

Just a few hours after it went live, the video generated almost 1.5 million views. It struck a senior officer to lead a complaint against the two boys calling for their prosecution. Malek instantly apologized for his actions while the Actors Syndicate backed his statement.

Abu Zeid, on the other hand, continued to post videos even after the incident, and released a statement emphasizing how the constitution supports his right of ” freedom of speech and creativity.”