CAIRO: The defense team of Al-Jazeera producer Howayda Taha, who was recently sentenced to six months in prison and fined LE 20,000 for "tarnishing Egypt's image has appealed the verdict. The next hearing is scheduled for June 16. Taha, who is currently in Qatar, does not plan on returning to Cairo because she is afraid of getting arrested by Egyptian police, her husband Ramadan Mohamed told The Daily Star Egypt. Mohamed told The Daily Star Egypt that Taha intended to come back to Cairo to face the Egyptian authorities after the final ruling, but was still debating the idea. "Selim Al Awwa, her lawyer, and Abdel Halim Kandil, the Kefaya movement activist, advised her not to come back to Egypt. They told her the police will most probably arrest her, so she changed her mind about coming back after she had decided to come to face the situation here, said Mohamed. He said that Taha's articles in opposition newspapers like El Karama and Al Dostour, reflect her harsh criticism of the Egyptian government, which is bad for her case. "I know that her harsh articles and columns in such papers are causing a lot of trouble to all of us [her family]. It is even affecting my business here in Egypt.I advised her more than once to stop this aggressive approach in her writings.we are not in America where people can freely write what they want, said Mohamed. While working on a documentary about alleged police torture in Egypt, Taha was charged was detained at Cairo International Airport as she waited to board a plane for Doha on Jan. 8. Her controversial film "Wara El Shams or "Beyond the Sun, was aired on Al-Jazeera Documentary channel in mid-April.
