CAIRO: Mahmoud Ahmed Abaza, president of Al-Wafd Party, Anwar Al-Hawary, chief editor of the party’s daily newspaper, and Younis Darwish, the newspaper’s reporter in Assiut, were sentenced in absentia to one month in jail by a Cairo court.
According to Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, secretary general of Al-Wafd, the sentences came after Darwish allegedly published false news about a local council meeting in Assiut.
In his article, Darwish reported on a discussion over a piece of land under the authority of the Ministry of Religious Endowments which was to be put up for auction.
Al-Hawary had told Al Mehwar’s 90 Minutes talk show via telephone that he is sure of the accuracy of Darwish’s story.
However, Abaza refused to comment on the verdict to Daily News Egypt and said that courts’ verdicts are left to the “Egyptian courts and laws … There is nobody above the law, he added.
Abdel Nour told Daily News Egypt that the verdict will be appealed on Jan. 5.
Abaza said that Egypt has recently witnessed a crackdown on journalists for publishing offences, a situation that “has never happened before in any time of Egypt’s history.
This is the first time in history for the president of Al-Wafd to receive a jail sentence.
“As long as the article has a by-line, the only person accountable is the reporter. Neither the chief editor nor anyone else should be questioned over it, Abaza said.
He stressed that changes must be made to the publishing offences law to protect the right of freedom of expression granted by the Egyptian constitution.
Abaza, does not believe that changing leadership after the up-coming press syndicate elections will improve the state of press freedom in Egypt.
“The solution to the problem lays solely in the hands of the People’s Assembly. The PA should work on a draft law to replace the current law regarding press crimes, Abaza said.
“The case [of journalists receiving jail sentences] has become a matter of public opinion, which gives the public the right to ask about the legitimacy of the laws that are not by any means suitable to our times, he added.
