(WAN/IFEX) – In a 22 May 2000 letter to President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, WAN and the World Editors Forum expressed serious concern over the sentencing to jail of journalist Talaat Rumeih. According to reports, on 17 May Cairo’s Bulaq district misdemeanours court sentenced Rumeih, deputy editor of the Islamic “Al-Shaab” newspaper, to six months in […]
(WAN/IFEX) – In a 22 May 2000 letter to President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, WAN and the World Editors Forum expressed serious concern over the sentencing to jail of journalist Talaat Rumeih.
According to reports, on 17 May Cairo’s Bulaq district misdemeanours court sentenced Rumeih, deputy editor of the Islamic “Al-Shaab” newspaper, to six months in prison and fined chief editor Magdi Hussein, journalists Adel Hussein and Amer Abdel Munim, and cartoonist Essam Hanafi 7,500 Egyptian pounds (US$2,200) each for libel. The five were each ordered to pay businessman and banker Hussein Sabur 501 pounds in compensation.
Sabur had accused the journalists of defaming him in thirty-six editions of the bi-weekly paper, which is owned by the opposition Labour Party. The newspaper had alleged that Sabur had stolen Libyan state secrets in the mid-1970s and that he had been involved in corruption.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
– reminding him that the criminal law is a wholly inappropriate means of dealing with the issue of defamation, and that such practice contravenes several international agreements
– stating that a civil award of reasonable damages is adequate and appropriate relief in all proven cases of defamation
– noting that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights considers that “detention, as punishment for the peaceful expression of an opinion, is one of the most reprehensible ways to enjoin silence and, as a consequence, a grave violation of human rights”
– respectfully calling on him to ensure that the custodial sentence imposed on Rumeih is overturned, and urging him to do everything in his power to ensure that in future Egypt fully respects its international obligations to freedom of expression
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:
His Excellency President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak
Presidential Palace
Cairo, Egypt
Email: webmaster@presidency.gov.eg
Please copy appeals to WAN.
