EGYPT: Opposition journalist faces trial over insult
BY NANGAYI GUYSON IN KAMPALA UGANDA – Cairo – An opposition journalist Hamdi Qandeel is facing trial for allegedly libelling Egypt’s foreign minister in a newspaper, a judicial source said on Sunday.
Hamdi Qandeel is mostly likely to face prison or a fine if found guilty of the charge of “insulting and libelling a public servant or citizen performing their work,” the source said.
However, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit filed a complaint against Qandeel alleging that he insulted him in a piece he wrote in the independent daily Shorouk which the official MENA news agency reported prosecutors as saying that he did not intend to insult the minister.
Many restrictions on the independent press in Egypt have been lifted in the past decade, but media rights activists say they still face censorship and spurious libel suits.
Ibrahim Eissa, the editor of another independent daily, was sentenced to prison in 2008 for writing that President Hosni Mubarak’s health was in decline. Mubarak pardoned Eissa, who did not spend any time in prison.
