CAIRO: Two lawyers filed a complaint against the three biggest state-run newspapers for breaching the media ban imposed on the Suzanne Tamim murder trial.
Lawyers Ihab Naguib and Mohamed Shaaban submitted the complaint to the public prosecutor s office accusing Al-Ahram, Al-Akhbar and Al-Gomhuria of breaching the ban imposed by the judge hearing the case.
The presiding judge Al-Mohammadi Qunsua decided that the media could no longer report on the details of the case, but could only report court decisions in the case of an adjournment or verdict.
The lawyers claim that the three newspapers published details about the hearings after the ban was put in place Nov. 16 and requested that officials from the newspapers be called in for questioning for their grave transgression.
They specifically referred to the Nov. 20 issues of the newspapers, which they allege included details on updates in the case.
Construction mogul Hisham Talaat Moustafa and former police officer Mohsen El-Sokkary are currently standing trial for the murder of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim, which occurred in Dubai on July 28.
Qunsua had enforced the press ban because of the undue influence he felt the media were exerting on public opinion regarding the case.
Last week, two reporters and the editor of Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper were interrogated for five hours concerning articles they had published on the case.
The ban has been met with opposition from groups supporting freedom of expression. Roda Ahmed from the Legal Unit in Support of Freedom of Expression told Al-Masry Al-Youm, The judge s decision is a violation of the right to know the truth, and paves the way for rumor mongering.
El-Sokkary is accused of carrying out the murder – a brutal killing in which Tamim was stabbed several times and had her throat slit – at the behest of Moustafa, who was romantically linked with the singer in the past, according to his lawyer.
Before the press ban was enforced, both defendants had pleaded not guilty to the charges. This is not the first time the press has been barred from reporting on the case. Prior to the arrest of Moustafa, a publishing ban was enforced to end speculation of his involvement.
It was police authorities in Dubai who fingered El-Sokkary and he was arrested an hour and a half after landing in Cairo on the same day of the murder. They identified him using footage from the building’s security cameras and found a change of clothes caked with blood outside the building.
Although the crime was committed in Dubai, the trial is being held in Cairo because Egypt does not extradite its citizens for crimes committed abroad.
Moustafa, the billionaire former chairman of the development behemoth Talaat Moustafa Group, was arrested Sept. 2 after parliamentary immunity was lifted from him.
He is also a member of the policies secretariat of the National Democratic Party (NDP) which is headed by Gamal Mubarak.
