Cairo Court of Appeal turned down the appeal lodged by Al-Gomhuria newspaper editor in chief Mohamed Ali Ibrahim against the LE 50,000 fine leveled at him in favor of Counselor Mahmoud Mekki, vice-president of the Court of Cassation. The court proved that Ibrahim had slandered and spread lies about Counselor Mekki on his newspaper and therefore tarnished the counselor's reputation. In one of his articles, Mr. Ibrahim had written that Mekki had taken part in the Qatar-sponsored Doha Conference, which he described as suspicious and hostile to Egypt. It has emerged, though, that Mekki did not travel to Doha and was actually working at the Court of Cassation on the day of the conference. Mr. Ibrahim had written in another article that Mekki had had a meeting with some judges in a chalet in Zomoroda (Egypt's northern coast) to plan a coup against the regime. Mekki said he would donate the LE 50,000 compensation to the families affected by the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip. Speaking to Al-Masry Al-Youm, he said: "Since I first lodged my lawsuit, I promised myself to donate the money for the defense of judges' independence and freedom of the press and to deposit it at the Judges Club and the Syndicate of Journalists". He added, though, that he would instead use this money to try and alleviate some families' pains. He then affirmed he might have resorted to a criminal court to sue Mr. Ibrahim for lying and not respecting his profession, which basically consists in defending liberties and people's rights. Instead, he lodged his lawsuit before a civil court because he is against jailing journalists under any circumstance, he said.
