CAIRO: Despite a release order from the prosecution office, Tamer Azab remains in custody for allegedly defaming advertising mogul Tarek Nour.
Azab, a student at Misr University for Science and Technology (MUST), was arrested on Oct. 25 for creating a Facebook group accusing Nour of plagiarizing other commercials in promos for his TV channel Al-Qahera Wal Nas (Cairo Centric).
On the online group “Stolen Promos, Azab claims that the promos for the channel were exact Arabic replicas of other international commercials, adding hyperlinks to the copied commercials.
“When he created this group he started receiving email threats from anonymous sources, his brother, Maher Azab, told Daily News Egypt.
Last August, a legal representative of the channel filed an legal warning in which he accused Azab of defamation and libel against Nour, as well as violating the channel’s intellectual property rights.
According to his brother, Azab is not doing well. “He is eligible for release and yet they are still holding him.there is no legal justification for detaining him any longer, he said.
“Everyone is telling us that there are big players behind all this so we are going to cooperate with human rights activists, he said.
Ahmed Omar, a lawyer at the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)’s Legal Aid Unit for freedom of expression, is handling the case.
“I’m on my way to meet with his brother [Maher Azab] and we are going to file a complaint at the Prosecutor General’s Office regarding deliberately impeding his release even though the release order was officially signed, he told Daily News Egypt.
ANHRI has released a statement denouncing Azab’s arrest, the raiding of his home and “arresting him as a favor for the powerful businessman Tarek Nour.
“This is a shameful incident to the Egyptian police; instead of investigating the incident of infringement of intellectual property disclosed by the press and internet activist, the police terrorized the activist in favor of powerful businessmen, ANHRI said. “Whether this prejudiced measure was taken voluntarily by the police or upon request from Tarek Nour, the law has been totally manipulated by the very guardians of law.
