CAIRO: Prosecutor General Mohamed Ghorab of the South Cairo Prosecution Office released editor in chief of Al-Masry Al-Youm Magdy El-Gallad on Sunday on professional grounds warranted by his press license.
The prosecution is investigating a complaint filed by head of Al-Wafd party Mahmoud Abaza against El-Gallad and Ammar Ali Hassan, Al-Masry reporter and head of research at the state-run Middle East News Agency, accusing them of publishing false information and defaming the opposition party.
“We are demanding that they [Al-Masry Al-Youm] deny the information they published, Abaza told Daily News Egypt.
The article published in independent daily Al-Masry reported that Al-Wafd is striking a covert deal with the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to secure 23 seats in the next parliamentary elections.
This was in exchange for Al-Wafd to not support the Muslim Brotherhood. The seats would be from those currently held by Brotherhood MPs, the paper claimed.
In addition, it was in exchange for the party’s opposition of former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei, current reform advocate and prospective presidential candidate, according to the newspaper report published March 14.
“This harms the party and the people affiliated with it, and it is against the law, said Abaza, insisting that the information published in the article is “false news.
Currently, the Brotherhood hold 88 seats in parliament as independents, which allegedly would have been divided up between Al-Wafd, the Tagammu and Nasserist parties among others.
NDP members have previously denied to the media that any deals have been struck between parties ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled in October.
Meanwhile, the prosecution accused El-Gallad of negligence with regards to supervising the editorial content of the paper.
El-Gallad could not be reached for a comment by press time.
On official news portal egynews.net, El-Gallad denounced claims by Al-Wafd and insisted that the information reported by Hassan is accurate and was gathered from reliable sources.
He also claimed that other newspapers and online news agencies have previously tackled the issue of deals among political parties, adding that none of them have resulted in legal action.
“What was published before were opinion pieces not news, and people are entitled to their own opinions, Abaza told Daily News Egypt.
