(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested the imprisonment of newspaper editor Mustapha Bakri and Mahmoud Bakri, his brother and fellow journalist, on 2 June 2003. They were both jailed after an Appeals Court upheld their conviction and one-year prison sentences for libel on 1 June. “We call for the immediate release of these journalists, who could […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested the imprisonment of newspaper editor Mustapha Bakri and Mahmoud Bakri, his brother and fellow journalist, on 2 June 2003. They were both jailed after an Appeals Court upheld their conviction and one-year prison sentences for libel on 1 June.
“We call for the immediate release of these journalists, who could be fined if they have broken the law, but should under no circumstances be sentenced to prison,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said. “At a time when Egypt wants to establish a human rights council and there is talk of doing away with state security courts, it does not serve the country’s image to imprison journalists for press crimes,” Ménard noted.
RSF’s secretary-general also pointed out that on 18 January 2000, the United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Abid Hussain, called on all governments “to ensure that press crimes are no longer subject to prison sentences except for crimes such as racist or discriminatory comments or appeals for violence.” Hussain said the imposition of a prison sentence for the peaceful expression of an opinion “constitutes a serious human rights violation.”
Mustapha Bakri is editor of the weekly “Al Ousbou”. His brother Mahmoud is a journalist with the same paper. On 1 June, an Appeals Court upheld the one-year prison sentences they received three years ago (see IFEX alert of 25 May 2001). They are being held in Tora prison, south of Cairo.
Mustapha and Mahmoud Bakri were convicted of libelling Mohammed Abdel Al, head of the opposition Social Justice Party and editor of the newspaper “Al-Watan Al-Arabi”, on the grounds that they accused him of corruption without offering any evidence. On 25 May, the State Security High Court sentenced Abdel Al to 10 years’ imprisonment for taking bribes from businessmen in return for a promise never to criticise them in his newspaper.
