CAIRO: An editor of an Egyptian independent newspaper said he was questioned by prosecutors Tuesday for violating a government ban on publishing information on the high profile killing of a Lebanese pop singer.
Sunday s edition of the Al-Dostour daily was barred from distribution by authorities because it included an article on the arrest of an Egyptian in the slaying of singer Suzanne Tamim last month in Dubai. The article remained on the paper s website.
Tamim was found stabbed and decapitated in her Dubai apartment on July 28, and since then her killing has been a top story in Arab media outside Egypt.
Egypt s Prosecutor General Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud imposed a ban on publication without giving any explanation, but the order came after reports in Arab media that Egyptians, including a top-level businessman, may have been involved.
Al-Dostour executive editor Ibrahim Mansour said prosecutors questioned him on suspicion of violating the ban and ordered that two journalists from the paper report to authorities for questioning on Wednesday. It was not clear whether any would face charges.
This is pure intimidation of the press, the public is entitled to know, Mansour told the AP.
Dubai s acting police chief Mattar Al-Mazeina said Saturday that a 39-year-old Arab man was arrested in another Arab country in connection with Tamim s death. He said the suspect fled the United Arab Emirates 90 minutes after the killing, but police tracked him down with the help of evidence collected at the scene. He refused to say where the man was arrested or identify him.
Egyptian security officials told The Associated Press that Egyptian authorities have detained an Egyptian in the case at the request of the UAE. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
The front-page article in Sunday s Al-Dostour quoted unidentified sources as saying a former Egyptian police officer and two hotel security men from Cairo had confessed to killing Tamim in Dubai on behalf of an Egyptian businessman. Some copies of the edition appeared on the stands late Saturday before distribution was halted.
Other Egyptian papers reported on the ban and complained that the government was trying to prevent implication of any prominent figures – while avoiding actually mentioning the investigation in an apparent attempt to avoid violating the ban.
They [businessmen] are becoming immune. The regime helps them get out of disasters and whitewashes them, wrote columnist Hamdi Rizk in the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper.
