Cairo court urged to quash one-year sentence passed on three journalists

Reporters without borders

Egypt | 18.04.2005

Reporters Without Borders wrote to Cairo criminal court president Almohamady Qonsoah today calling on his court to quash the one-year prison sentence and heavy fines passed yesterday on three journalist with the independent daily al-Masry al-Youm.

"In view of President Hosni Mubarak's promise to journalists in February 2004 to abolish prison sentences for 'publishing offences,' we appeal to the common sense of the Egyptian courts," the press freedom organization said. "The president announced his decision to the president of the Union of Egyptian Journalists, Galal Aref, saying he intended to present a bill for this purpose to the Egyptian parliament."

The letter added : "Sentencing journalists to a year in prison for libel runs counter to the Egyptian constitution, which in principle guarantees press freedom, and to the international standards ratified by Egypt, especially the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Egypt cannot throw journalists in prison and at the same time hope to demonstrate its will to advance the human rights situation. We therefore call on the Cairo criminal court to quash the prison sentences passed on these three journalists."

The three - Alaa Yehya Mohamed (also known as "Alaa el-Ghatrifi"), Youssef Taha Abdel Rahman (aka "Youssef el-Aoumy") and Abdel Nasser Ali (aka "Abdel Nasser el-Zouhairy") - were sentenced yesterday by a Cairo court to a year in prison and fines of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (1,340 euros) as a result of a libel action by housing minister Ibrahim Suleiman. Reached by telephone, al-Masry al-Youm editor Hisham Kassem told Reporters Without Borders the journalists'lawyers intended to appeal. They have 30 days to do so.

Suleiman's complaint, which he submitted to state prosecutor Maher Abdel Wahed, was prompted by a report on 18 August 2004, headlined "Ibrahim Suleiman's office searched," which referred to a corruption investigation concerning the minister's brother-in-law. It said police searched his office and that he was forbidden to enter it. The next day, the newspaper ran a denial issued by the minister's aides.

Egypt is one of the world's 19 countries where journalists are still imprisoned. Abd al-Munim Gamal al Din Abd al Munim of the pro-Islamist biweekly Al-Sha'ab has been subject to a detention order of unspecified duration since 30 October 1993. Although he has never been involved in violence and no evidence has ever been produced against him, the authorities deemed him to be an Islamist liable to pose a threat to national security.

Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world, as well as the right to inform the public and to be informed, in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reporters Without borders has nine national sections (in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), representatives in Abidjan, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and Washington and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide.