London – June18, 2016
(Ikshef) – In a dangerous development in the attack on press freedom in Egypt, Cairo Criminal Court issued today harsh sentences against four journalists and two citizens, in addition to the provisions of aggravated imprisonment against others on top of them is the former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on charges of spying with Qatar.
In the same day, to Qasr Al-Nil Misdemeanor Court decided to postpone the second hearing of trial of the head of Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate Yahya Qalash, EJS’ general secretary Gamal Abdel-Rahim and EJS’ debuty head Khaled Al-Balshi on charges of harboring wanted people. The session was postponed to June 25 to check evidences and listen to witnesses.
Also, a military court has handled today the case of Mosaab Hamed, correspondent of Misr 25 channel, who were arrested on July 10, 2015.
Arab Media Freedom Monitor “Ikshef” once again confirms that today’s sentences against are political ones that aim at punishing political opponents on one hand, and on the other hand they target further suppression of freedom of the press and journalists, and preventing them from reporting information which is the core of their work with the accusation of spying for just getting information and publishing it as the audience’s right.
This verdict is the first of its kind, which includes the collective execution of four journalists in a publishing case, in which the Egyptian constitution prevents the mere jailing in relation to publishing (Article 71), however, the court exceeded that to the death penalty directly, in a clear disregard of the human beings’ lives, and of the most basic human right which is the right to life.
Through the follow-up of the course of the case and the review of the prosecution evidence in it, Ikshef confirms that what was attributed to the four journalists are matters relating to essentially their journalist work in reporting information and having access to documents and data, and informing the public opinion about them, and therefore they do not deserve any punishment.
It is a strange thing that the Egyptian authorities claimed that media defendants in the case (Ibrahim Helal – Alaa Sablan- Ahmed Abdu Afifi – Asmaa Al-Khatib) were communicating with a Qatari official or officials while there was no mention of the names of those officials, also they were not charged, which means that case is merely a political spite.
Ikshef demands the organizations and institutions concerned with freedom of the press locally and internationally for an urgent action to save the lives of these journalists, and save the freedom of the press in Egypt, from what it is experiencing as systematic suppression through judiciary, and that aims to turn the legal system into mere mouthpieces of the ruling regime, and take away all the gains achieved after the January 25th, 2011 revolution.
