Region | Egypt
'This is a death announcement for freedom of press in Egypt'
An Egyptian court yesterday sentenced four editors of independent newspapers to a year in prison each after convicting them of slandering President Hosni Mubarak, his son Jamal and other ruling party officials.
- By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
- Published: 23:34 September 13, 2007
Cairo: An Egyptian court yesterday sentenced four editors of independent newspapers to a year in prison each after convicting them of slandering President Hosni Mubarak, his son Jamal and other ruling party officials.
The court passed the ruling, one of the toughest in publication cases, against Ebrahim Eisa, the editor of Al Dustour; Adel Hamouda of Al Fajer; Wael Al Ibrashi of Sout Al Umma and Abdul Halim Qandil, a former editor of the opposition newspaper Al Karama. None of the editors appeared in court. The case against them was filed by Ebrahim Abdul Rasul, a 42-year-old lawyer last year. He complained the articles they published in their papers "caused extreme harm" to Mubarak, who is the chairman of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
"These people have offended the President and spread lies about our country and the NDP to which I belong," he said after the ruling.
Eisa will go on trial on October 1 in another case on charges of propagating "harmful rumours" about Mubarak's health.
Corrupt
"The four editors accused the Government of being corrupt, the ruling party of being a hotbed of theft and public figures like the Prime Minister and the ruling party's Assistant Secretary-General Jamal Mubarak of being the enemies of people," said one of the presiding judges.
The court also ordered the four editors to each pay fines of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (Dh12,998). The court said they could stay free pending appeal on bail of 10,000 pounds each.
"This is a death announcement for the freedom of press in Egypt," Eisa said.
Qandil said the "severe" verdict would not weaken him.
Hafez Abu Seada, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, said: "This is something very unique to Egypt," he said.
"I have never seen, at least in the last five years, any country that jails four editors in one day."
- With inputs from Reuters
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