CAIRO: The editor-in-chief of a local website has been sentenced to six months imprisonment and a fine of LE 200 after being found guilty of libel. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) said in a statement issued Tuesday that a complaint was filed by Saad El-Gammal, MP for the El-Saff constituency in Helwan, against Sherif Abdel-Hamid, editor of the “El-Saff” website (www.elsaff.com). The complaint, filed in June, alleges that Abdel-Hamid libeled El-Gammal in statements published on the website in May and June 2010 in which he criticized the MP and held him responsible for the deterioration in standards of living and public services in El-Saff. Abdel-Hamid was questioned by the El-Saff public prosecution office on June 26, 2010 and ordered to pay bail of LE 1,000. EOHR said that Abdel-Hamid refused to pay bail because he regarded the proceedings as a violation of his freedom of expression and was remanded in custody for four days as a result. After starting a hunger strike Abdel-Hamid was released without bail. The attorney general initially refused to refer the case to the Economic Court —to which internet cases are referred as a matter of routine — and returned it back to the El-Saff public prosecution office on July 7. On July 28, however, Abdel-Hamid was found guilty in absentia by the El-Saff Misdemeanors Court. EOHR renewed its appeals for imprisonment sentences to be abolished for publishing crimes, a pledge President Hosni Mubarak made in 2005 which has yet to be implemented. The NGO said that such sentences are at odds with the Egyptian Constitution and international treaties ratified by Egypt “as well as pledges made before the United Nations Human Rights Council to respect freedom of the press.”
