A Cairo criminal court turned down on Thursday an appeal by a Muslim Brotherhood member against television host Tawfik Okasha on charges of slandering the group.

Okasha had said in an episode on his television channel that was shut down upon a court order that the Muslim Brotherhood's leader gave a lawyer a large amount of money to bribe voters into electing Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

A court had ruled in favor of Okasha last year on several charges including insulting President Mohamed Mursi, novelist Alaa al-Aswany and the mother of torture-victim Khaled Saeed.