The Sayeda Zainab Court yesterday had a heated session in the gag order breach case of murdered singer Suzanne Tamim, which the prosecutors have filed against Al-Masry Al-Youm and Al-Wafd newspapers. The verdict will be announced on February 12. All attendees said Dr. Mohamed Hamouda's defense argumentation was historic and should be recorded. In his 24-minute refutation, Hamouda said the gag order is ambiguous for more than 90% of the lawyers, so how would a journalist understand it, as it bans printing anything except the court rulings and the final verdict, which makes no sense. This eliminates the material element of the crime. Negad el-Borie said Article 200 bis, which makes the owner of an institution responsible for civil rights and fines, is unconstitutional. He explained that the responsibility of the two accused journalists was to collect information and deliver it to their principals and that they were not responsible for printing it. He said Yousri el-Badri and Farouk el-Dessouki did so in good faith. Essam Sultan said what was printed was no different from the other state-owned newspapers and did not deviate from the resolutions issued by the court.
