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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 April 2000 Issue No. 477 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 April 2000 Issue No. 477
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Al-Shaab appeal rejected
By Khaled Dawoud
In a heated session, the Cairo Criminal Court rejected the latest attempt by three journalists working for the Islamist-oriented Al-Shaab newspaper to delay the enforcement of imprisonment sentences handed down two weeks ago for libelling and slandering Agriculture Minister Youssef Wali. Wali is also deputy prime minister and secretary-general of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Al-Shaab is the mouthpiece of Ibrahim Shukri's Labour Party.
Al-Shaab's editor-in-chief, Magdi Hussein, and journalist Salah Bedeiwi were sentenced to two years' imprisonment and fined LE20,000 each by the Cairo Criminal Court on 1 April. Al-Shaab cartoonist, Essam Hanafi, was sentenced to one year's imprisonment and fined LE20,000 and senior writer and member of the Labour Party leadership, Adel Hussein, was fined LE20,000.
Shortly after the sentences were handed down, police arrested the three journalists and took them to prison. Lawyers, including some representing the Press Syndicate, appealed to the court to reconsider the sentences on the grounds that the defendants were not present in court when the verdicts were delivered. Due to the fact that the downtown Cairo Criminal Court includes numerous rooms, Al-Shaab lawyers said they did not know where, or when, the trial was taking place. But the court, rejecting this argument, said that the three journalists had no excuse for missing the session.
In August last year, another circuit of the Cairo Criminal Court had sentenced Magdi Hussein, Bedeiwi and Hanafi to two years' imprisonment and fined each LE20,000. Hussein and Bedeiwi turned themselves in to police but cartoonist Hanafi went into hiding. He later surrendered. From behind bars, the three appealed the sentences with the Court of Cassation, the nation's highest criminal tribunal. The court, four months later, ordered a re-trial, ruling that there were legal loopholes, particularly the Cairo Criminal Court's rejection of a request by Al-Shaab lawyers to summon Wali to testify as a witness.
After a new trial began in February before another court circuit, Wali agreed to testify in a closed session. Al-Shaab, in its press campaign against Wali in early 1999, accused the influential minister of "treason" for encouraging normalisation of ties with Israel and "destroying" the nation's agriculture by importing substandard and contaminated seeds.
Now, Al-Shaab lawyers say, the Court of Cassation will either confirm the imprisonment sentences or amend them. There will not be a third trial.
In 1998, Hussein and another journalist at Al-Shaab, Mohamed Hilal, spent three months in prison after they were convicted of libelling former Interior Minister Hassan El-Alfi. The Court of Cassation at the time ordered a re-trial, but it never took place because an out-of-court settlement was reached by the two sides. A similar arrangement is unlikely in Wali's case.
The Press Syndicate's council, in reaction, issued a statement expressing "strong concern and deep worry," but affirming respect for the judiciary. The statement said that the sentences were passed at a time when journalists were making efforts to have imprisonment sentences for publication offences repealed. The syndicate also said that it would continue to provide legal support to secure the release of the three journalists. Magdi Hussein is an elected member of the syndicate's council and chairman of its Freedoms Committee.
Similarly, the Arab Journalists' Federation opened yesterday a two-day meeting at which the repeal of jail terms for publication offences topped the agenda. The federation issued a statement on Saturday declaring opposition to the sentences passed against the Al-Shaab journalists. Local and international human rights groups aired the same view in a number of statements they issued.
