The Cairo Economic Court has ruled in the case of media personality Maha El-Saghir, who was found guilty of infringing intellectual property rights by falsely claiming ownership of artworks. The ruling was based on articles 138/1, 139, and 140/9 of the Copyright Law No. 82 of 2002. Yesterday (Saturday), the court sentenced El-Saghir to one month in prison and a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds. This case arose after El-Saghir, a former guest on Mona El-Shazly's 'Maakom' show on ONE channel in July, presented several paintings as her own work. Among them was a painting that its Danish owner, Lisa Nacilsen, identified as her original creation. The incident also involved other artworks by different artists. Subsequently, El-Saghir apologized to Danish artist Lisa Nacilsen and to the 'Maakom' show, stating in an official Facebook post: 'I was wrong. I was wrong to the Danish artist Lisa, to all artists, to the platform I spoke from, and most importantly, I was wrong to myself.' She added, 'The difficult circumstances I have been through do not justify what happened,' referring to her recent divorce from Egyptian star Ahmed El-Sakka after a 26-year marriage that produced three children. El-Saghir concluded her post by saying, 'I am angry with myself and I am sorry for myself.' The scandal escalated when it was discovered that the plagiarism extended to other artists besides Nacilsen.
