CAIRO: Kamal Abbas, the director of the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services (CTUWS), a high-profile labor rights group shut down by the authorities last winter, was sentenced to one year in prison for defamation. The case was filed against both him and a freelance writer for the group's magazine, after it published allegations of corruption against a Cairo youth center which later proved to be true. Both Abbas and the writer, Mohamed Helmy, were sentenced by the Helwan Misdemeanor Court, but remain free pending an appeal which will be heard on Dec. 26. The charges were published in Kalam Sanay'iya, the magazine of the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services, which was shut down in March after the state accused it of threatening national security by encouraging workers to strike. In the article, Helmy alleged that the management of the 15th of May Youth Center was corrupt, and laid the blame on Mohamed Mustafa Ibrahim, the chairman of its board and a member of the National Democratic Party who was once a parliamentary candidate. When the article appeared, Ibrahim sued both Helmy and Abbas for "public abuse and "defamation of his capacity as a public representative. The author claimed inside knowledge of the center's operations because he was also a member of its board of directors, and, along with four other board members filed a complaint against Ibrahim before Cairo governor Abdel Azim Wazir last year. Wazir assigned a task force to investigate the charges, which released a report last January confirming Helmy's allegations of financial misconduct and recommending that Ibrahim be removed from his position. In response, Wazir disbanded the entire board of the 15th of May Center, relieving both Helmy and Ibrahim of their duties. Abbas stands by the article, saying that the governor's action against the center's management proves that it was based on facts. "The article that we published about the 15th of May Youth Center was based on facts and research, he told Daily News Egypt. "Those complaints and facts were all accurate and legitimate, and eventually led to solving many of the problems at the center. "Ibrahim filed his suit against both the writer and I before it was clear to everyone that the facts were true, and before the problems there were solved, he added. In a statement released to the media, the CTUWS expressed "extreme concern at what it called an "unbelievable sentence. It says the sentence is just another example of the regime's crackdown on both free speech and non-governmental organizations, and demanded the government "annul penalties which restrict freedom of publishing and also called for Egyptians to "defend freedom of expression.
