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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 April 2000 Issue No. 476 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 April 2000 Issue No. 476
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Summit Features Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Al-Shaab journalists re-convicted
By Gamal Essam El-Din
Following a retrial, the Cairo Criminal Court has handed down harsh sentences against three journalists working for Al-Shaab, mouthpiece of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party, after they were found guilty of slandering Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Youssef Wali.
Following six court hearings during the past four months, the court sentenced Chief Editor Magdi Hussein and reporter Salah Bedeiwi to two years in prison. Each was also fined LE20,000. A two-year sentence against cartoonist Essam Hanafi, also fined LE20,000, was reduced to one year. Adel Hussein, the party's secretary-general, was fined LE20,000. All four were ordered to pay Wali LE501 in initial compensation.
Magdi Hussein, Bedeiwi and Hanafi, who were arrested two hours after the verdicts were announced, have contested the sentences with the Cairo Court of Appeals. If their appeal is turned down, they can take their case to the Court of Cassation. If that, too, fails, the verdicts become final.
In their appeal, the journalists argued that in the last two court hearings, which ended with the verdicts going against them, were held in their absence and the absence of Wali's lawyer as well.
The court's verdict marked the third round in a legal battle between Wali and Al-Shaab that followed a press campaign launched by the newspaper against the agriculture minister almost a year and a half ago. The first round began in December 1998 when Al-Shaab began publishing a series of articles accusing Wali of "high treason" for advocating normalisation of relations with Israel at the expense of Egypt's national security and agricultural interests. Three months later, Wali filed a libel complaint with the prosecutor-general who ordered the journalists be put on trial before the Cairo Criminal Court. The trial began on 15 May last year and ended on 14 August with the court ordering the maximum penalty -- two years and LE20,000 -- to be meted out against the three journalists.
Round two began with the journalists filing an appeal with the Court of Cassation. On 5 December, the court annulled the sentences and ordered a retrial before another circuit of the Criminal Court. The Court of Cassation said its decision was based on the fact that the journalists were not given adequate opportunity to defend themselves because the Criminal Court turned down their request to hear Wali's testimony.
The retrial, which opened on 9 February and continued until 28 March, included six court hearings. The lawyers defending the journalists sought to have the court prevented from conducting hearings but the request was turned down and Magdi Hussein was fined LE2,000. On 13 March, Wali surprised the defendants as well as political observers by appearing in person in court to deliver his testimony, which he did in a three-hour closed session. He was accompanied by his lawyer, No'man Goma'a, who doubles as deputy chairman of the opposition Wafd Party. Hussein later said that Wali had refused to answer the court's questions but the assertion could not be corroborated. Journalists were banned from attending the testimony.
In two sessions, the court heard the testimony of five defence witnesses, all of them agricultural experts. They agreed that Wali's policies of cooperation with Israel had inflicted harm on Egyptian agriculture as a result of collaborating with experts from Israel's Mossad intelligence service in suspicious and destructive agricultural experiments.
Following the first trial, Wali filed a lawsuit against Al-Shaab, seeking LE20 million in compensation. When the Court of Cassation ordered a retrial, hearings of Wali's lawsuit were postponed pending the outcome of the new trial. Wali is expected to file the lawsuit once again.
