| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Africa North | |
| Egyptian editor to stand trial | |
| 2007-09-12 | |
A newspaper editor will be put on trial over his paper's recent reports questioning the health of Egypt's 79-year-old president, Hosni Mubarak, the state news agency said Tuesday.
"All the accusations are nonsense," Eissa, 41, told The Associated Press. "They are using me to scare journalists and critics from criticizing Mubarak personally or from talking about the possibility of his son inheriting power." The president, who has ruled Egypt for more than a quarter-century, has no designated successor, but many believe his son Gamal is being groomed for power, a prospect that has raised widespread opposition. Several opposition and independent newspapers published stories for several weeks last month speculating that Mubarak's health was poor. Al-Dustour carried front-page stories for several days, including one that contended Mubarak sometimes lapses into comas. Mubarak and state-run media did not comment or deny the rumors for weeks, until finally the president appeared in photos and gave an interview to state-run media. In his interview with the government Al-Ahram newspaper, Mubarak accused "illegitimate movements" of being behind the rumors — a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is Egypt's most powerful opposition movement, though it is officially banned. The group's leader, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, denied the allegation. Eissa is an outspoken critic of Mubarak. His paper is sharply critical of the government and often breaks political, social and religious taboos in its commentaries on Egyptian society. Its sharp language earned the ire of censors and editions were confiscated three times in the 1990s. Al-Dustour was closed in 1998 for seven years by the government, after it published a statement by an Islamist group that threatened Coptic Christian businessmen in Egypt. In 2006, Eissa was sentenced to a year in prison for libeling Mubarak, but an appeals court reduced the sentence to a $4,000 fine. The Egyptian organization for Human Rights expressed its "deep concern" about the plan to try Eissa, and called on the canceling of provisions allowing prison sentences for crimes connected to the press. | |
| Posted by:Seafarious |