By Marwa Al-A’asar
CAIRO: MP Moamena Kamel, Chief Editor of Al-Shorouk daily newspaper Amr Khafagy, and Al-Shorouk journalist Hisham El-Mayany will all stand trial on Dec. 18 before the Giza Criminal Court for charges of insulting and defaming judge Walid El-Shafei.
The prosecution interrogated the three on Saturday before they were released pending trial. Each was ordered to pay LE 20,000 for bail.
In an interview published Saturday in Al-Shorouk, Kamel described El-Shafei as being “a liar,” “mentally unstable,” and “reckless.”
El-Shafei had earlier detected violations committed in the constituency where she ran for the People’s Assembly (PA) as a ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) member candidate.
Kamel, a pathology professor and the owner of chain of laboratories, won a People’s Assembly (PA) seat in the first round of the PA elections held on Nov. 28.
El-Mayany told Daily News Egypt that the interview was recorded. However, he stated that he did not inform Kamel he was recording the phone call.
On election day, El-Shafei was reportedly detained in the polling station at a Badrashin middle school by the area’s chief of detectives after he saw several violations — including the prevention of voters from entering the polling station and vote rigging in favor of Kamel and fellow female NDP candidate Nermine Badrawi.
In a statement released early last week, the Judges’ Club condemned the security forces’ detainment of — and violations allegedly perpetrated against — El-Shafei while he was monitoring the Badrashin polling station.
El-Shafei reported the incident to the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC).
Kamel alleged that El-Shafei had no right to monitor the polling station since he was not a member in the committee that supervised elections in the area. Kamel further said that the NDP secretary in the area, who is a lawyer, allowed El-Shafei to enter the polling station after he recognized him.
“[Simply] being a judge does not give him the right to inspect polling stations,” Kamel told El-Mayany.
Kamel denied during the interview that any ballot-rigging was committed to her benefit, describing whatever El-Shafei said as “lies.”
Kamel also alleged that El-Shafei targeted the NDP candidates in the constituency and that he focused on female candidates because men would have stood up against him.
In a telephone interview with the “Sabah” television program on the Dream TV satellite channel on Saturday, Kamel denied that she said any insulting words against El-Shafei.
However, El-Mayany told Daily News Egypt that Kamel did not deny that the voice on the interview he recorded was hers.
Kamel and El-Shafei could not be reached for comment at press time.
The Kamel interview was part of the newspaper’s follow up on the detainment of El-Shafei.
“Since the polls kicked off, the newspaper ran a number of stories on the [violations committed against El-Shafei] … which proves [our] good will,” said El-Mayany. “Hence, we thought of interviewing Kamel [to present the other side of the story] … and I did not have any intention whatsoever to insult the judge.”
Nevertheless, according to Mahmoud Sherif, the secretary general of the Judges’ Club, “the law punishes a perpetrator whether he committed the deed intentionally or existentially. Legally, El-Shafei has the right to take Kamel, the editor, and the journalist to court … even if the recording proves to be true.”
Sherif added, “Laws No. 306 and 171 [can be applied] to the case … [where] words of defamation were used in publishing. In this case, it will be considered a misdemeanor, but [will be tried] before a criminal court.”
