Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 28 Sep. - 4 Oct. 2000 Issue No. 501
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

	Egypt Elections Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters

Labour besieged

By Khaled Dawoud

There was good news and bad news for the Islamist-oriented Labour Party this week. The party continued to win appeals against the decision of the government-controlled Political Parties Committee to freeze party activities and suspend the publication of its bi-weekly mouthpiece Al-Shaab. However, the Court of Cassation, the highest in the nation, confirmed on Tuesday sentences of imprisonment and hefty fines against four journalists with Al-Shaab for slandering Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Youssef Wali.

Al-Shaab editor-in-chief, Magdi Hussein, journalist Salah Bedeiwi and cartoonist Essam Hanafi were each initially sentenced to a two-year-imprisonment term and given a fine of LE20,000 in August 1999. Adel Hussein, former editor of Al-Shaab and secretary-general of the Labour Party, was fined LE20,000. However, in December 1999, the Court of Cassation accepted an appeal by the four journalists on procedural grounds, and ordered a retrial by a different panel of judges. The imprisoned journalists were subsequently released. At the end of the new trial in April, the court confirmed the sentences against Magdi Hussein, Bedeiwi and Adel Hussein. The court, however, reduced the sentence against Hanafi by one year. Magdi Hussein, Bedeiwi and Hanafi were taken to prison again, but they filed another appeal with the Court of Cassation. On Tuesday, that court's offices were crammed by Al-Shaab journalists, the wives and family members of the three imprisoned journalists. The three were not brought from prison to the court. With the court turning down their appeal, the sentences became final.

The court's ruling was particularly upsetting to Magdi Hussein, who had declared from behind bars that he would contest the upcoming parliamentary elections in Cairo's middle-class district of Manial, where he lives. Had the Court of Cassation ruled in his favour, he would have been released from prison immediately to launch his election campaign.

The Labour Party and its mouthpiece, Al-Shaab, had been involved in a confrontation with the government for more than two years. However, the final straw was when in April the party's newspaper initiated a fierce campaign against the Ministry of Culture for reprinting an allegedly blasphemous novel by Syrian writer Haydar Haydar as part of a series aimed at introducing Egyptians to Arab literature. Al-Shaab published headlines and articles, which a number of intellectuals saw as inflammatory and a threat to their personal safety, as the newspaper editorial articles was calling for revenge against those who had taken part in publishing the novel. Violent demonstrations broke out at the Al-Azhar University in sympathy with Al-Shaab's campaign against Haydar's novel.

The Political Parties Committee ordered a freeze of the Labour Party and its activities in late May on the grounds that there were internal divisions over the chairman's post. The Labour Party, which has been in alliance with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood since 1987, filed an appeal with the Administrative Court against the Committee's decision, and won. Only one day before that ruling was handed down in late July, though, the Committee decided to seek the approval of the Political Parties Tribunal for its decision to dissolve the party, sequestrate its assets and ban all its publications. The Committee also asked the court to investigate criminal charges against the Labour Party's leadership, including the forging of an alliance with an outlawed group (the Brotherhood), changing the party's name and platform and financial irregularities. Two weeks ago, the Administrative Court accepted an appeal by the Labour Party against the Committee's decision to ban Al-Shaab, but said other alleged violations should be considered by the Political Parties Tribunal. The government appealed the decision, but lost on 23 September.

This, however, is not the end of the story. Making use of the complicated legal system and what seems to be endless steps to file appeals and counter-appeals, the government asked another court to stop the implementation of the Administrative Court's ruling ordering the reappearance of Al-Shaab. A Cairo court will start looking into the government's second appeal on 7 November.

According to Talaat Rumeih, Al-Shaab's deputy editor-in-chief, "the government will not allow the return of Al-Shaab regardless of the number of cases we win against them. They will always manage to find one loophole here or there to stop the implementation of the ruling."

Finding itself in this situation, the Labour Party's leadership issued a statement this week, declaring that it would boycott the upcoming elections. However, Adel Hussein, the party's secretary-general, said that slightly more than 30 Labour members would run as individual candidates and not under the party's banner. "Officially, we can't field our own candidates because we have been suspended by the Political Parties Committee," he explained.

Meanwhile, prosecutors questioned Labour's 84-year-old leader, Ibrahim Shukri, for more than 15 hours over three days this week over the charges brought against him by the Political Parties Committee, mainly to do with forging an alliance with the Brotherhood and turning his party into a religious group in violation of existing laws. Shukri was released on bail. More Labour leaders and Al-Shaab journalists are expected to be summoned soon for similar interrogations.

"The government does not want to see any Islamists, whether Brotherhood or Labour, in the new parliament. That is it," said Rumeih.

---

Related stories:
Islamist mouthpiece remains closed 14 - 20 September 2000
Labour in limbo 10-16 August
Labour's 9 deadly sins 3 - 9 August 2000

 

	weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg