(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Information Minister Safwat El Chérif, RSF protested the jail sentences against five journalists with the daily newspaper “Al-Ahrar”. Salah Qabadaya, Hossam Solimane, Mohamed Abdel Fahim, Hicham Moustafa and Nabil Rizqallah were accused of “libel”. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked the minister “to see to it that the journalists are […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Information Minister Safwat El Chérif, RSF protested the jail sentences against five journalists with the daily newspaper “Al-Ahrar”. Salah Qabadaya, Hossam Solimane, Mohamed Abdel Fahim, Hicham Moustafa and Nabil Rizqallah were accused of “libel”. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked the minister “to see to it that the journalists are not jailed.” The organisation noted that in an 18 January 2000 document, Abid Hussain, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, strongly urges “all governments to ensure that press offences are no longer punishable by terms of imprisonment, except in cases involving racist or discriminatory comments or calls to violence. In the case of offenses such as ‘libelling’, ‘insulting’ or ‘defaming’ the head of State and publishing or broadcasting ‘false’ or ‘alarmist’ information, prison terms are both reprehensible and out of proportion to the harm suffered by the victim. In all such cases, imprisonment as punishment for the peaceful expression of an opinion constitutes a serious violation of human rights.” RSF added that “on 1 April, three journalists with the bi-weekly newspaper ‘Al-Shaab’ were sentenced to one and two-year prison terms, also on charges of defamation” (see IFEX alerts of 5 and 3 April 2000).
According to the information collected by RSF, on 16 April, the Cairo Correctional Court sentenced Qabadaya, the editor-in-chief of the opposition daily “Al-Ahrar” to six months in prison, along with four other journalists, Solimane, Abdel Fahim, Moustafa and Rizqallah. The journalists are accused of having libelled Mohamed Fahim Rayyane, the chair of Egyptair, in 1997. The journalists can appeal and receive a suspended sentence while they await the Appeals Court’s decision.
