CAIRO - As hearings will resume on Tuesday, defence lawyers for a female MP on trial on charges of slandering a judge in an interview Saturday sparred with their counterparts defending two journalists form an independent newspaper, standing trial in the same case for publishing the allegedly defaming remarks. Mo'mena Kamel, a newly elected MP, is on trial along with two journalists from Al-Shorouq independent newspaper on charges of slandering judge Walid el-Shafei, a member of the Higher Election Commission, which managed recent polls for the Parliament. "We have not sland or defamed el-Shafei. All what we have done was publishing what Kamel said exclusively to our newspaper," said Amr Khafagi, the editor-in-chief of Al-Shorouq. Khafagi, who is on trial along with journalist Hesham el-Myani, added that they provided the court with a CD of the phone interview with Kamel. However, lawyers for Kamel, who is a member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), said their client did not realise the interview was recorded. "What Kamel said was off the record. She was not informed by the journalist being it was that recorded and that her remarks would be published," a lawyer for the MP said. He asked the court to suspend the trial until the legislature decided whether the immunity of Kamel would be removed or not. The court then heard Gamal Fahmi, a member of the Egyptian Press Syndicate board, who said that it was inclusively understood by an source talking to a journalist that his interview was recorded and would be published. "Sure, the journalist was not making an interview with Kamel for the sake of speaking," he said. The lawyers for judge el-Shafei, whom Kamel described as psychologically disturbed, asked for LE100,000 in compensation for the alleged defamation. Al-Shorouq newspaper was also the centre of another controversial libel case filed by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, who is suing veteran media personality Hamdi Qandeel, who published an opinion piece deemed by Abul Gheit as insulting. "The case will resume Sunday (today). The lawyers for Qandeel will have a chance to ask that the court panel be replaced," a legal source said. He added that Qandeel's lawyers had a heated talk with the chief judge who refused a request for the foreign minister to attend the session and be questioned. Lawyers for Qandeel then asked for the court to be replaced. Abul Gheit is requesting that Qandeel and Ibrahim el-Moalem, Al-Shorouq's publisher, pay a compensation of LE20 million ($3,45 million). Abul Gheit alleges that Qandeel insulted him when he likened statements made by Gheit to rubbish. Qandeel could face imprisonment or a fine if found guilty. In 2007, editors of four Egyptian indepdendent newspapers were sentenced to a year in prison each for defaming President Hosni Mubarak and the ruling National Democratic Party after publishing criticisms in their newspapers. In 2009, a court of appeals overturned the editors' prison sentences but fined them LE20,000 each.
