Tawfik Okasha

Tawfiq Okasha , is an Egyptian television presenter as owner and principal anchor of the satellite political-commentary channel Faraeen (also Al Fara'een) until it was folded in 2016. He has been called an opponent of Egyptian liberals and revolutionary youth activists, and until late June 2012 was considered "a staunch supporter" of Egypt's ruling military council (SCAF).

Biography Following Egypt's 2012 presidential election Okasha claimed that the United States government and Egypt's ruling military council had rigged the election in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi as part of a plot to seize Egyptian oil fields and turn them over to Israel, and that the true winner of the election was Ahmed Shafik, a former general who was Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister. The claim was called "wildly counterintuitive" as both the United States and ruling military are enemies of the Brotherhood, and members of the council appeared on television to deny the report.

A former member of parliament for the former ruling National Democratic Party, Okasha has also been called "Egypt's Glenn Beck" (after the right-wing American television host) for his "embrace of conspiratorial thinking and hatred of political Islam". In March 2012, he was found guilty of defamation and libel in lawsuit filed against him for insulting the mother of Egyptian torture victim Khaled Saeed and sentenced in absentia.

On 22 October 2012, Okasha was convicted of insulting President Mohamed Morsi and sentenced to a four-month jail term and a fine of 100 Egyptian pounds (US$16.39). Okasha remained free while appealing the sentence. Amnesty International protested the conviction, calling it "a further blow to freedom of expression" and noting that the organization would consider Okasha a prisoner of conscience were he imprisoned on this basis.

He won a seat in the parliament following the 2015 parliamentary election. However, he was expelled in early 2016, as he had invited the Israeli ambassador Haim Koren for dinner at his home in Dakahlia Governorate.

In 2017, he was sentenced for a one year in prison for forging his PhD certificate from an alleged U.S. university to enter the parliament. Later on, he went to work for "Al-Hayat TV" in 2018.