February 11, 2018
An Egyptian criminal court Sunday issued its verdict in the case of the killing of journalist Mayada Ashraf of Al-Dostor newspaper on 28 March 2014 in the absence of guarantees of fair trials and in violation of the testimonies that documented the involvement of the Egyptian police in the killing of the late journalist.
Arab Media Freedom Monitor (Ikshef) sees that the verdict issued today condemning many of the people for the killing of Ashraf is one of the politicized provisions that lack integrity and contradict the rules of fair trials, which ignores the real culprits and gives them an opportunity to escape punishment.
Since the first moments of the killing of journalist Ashraf, her colleagues who accompanied her in coverage of the demonstrations in Al-Matareya area, including journalist Mina Nader, her colleague Ahlam Hassanein, and journalist Abdul-Latif Sobh – links to accounts are below – testified that it was the police that killed Ashraf and the other victims, as the bullets were shot from behind during chasing the demonstrators and the journalists too. Ikshef had demanded long time ago to bring the real culprits of the police to trial.
Ikshef asserts that it is keen that journalists receive their rights, that those who attack them be prosecuted, and that it refuses that innocents be punished, while the murderers live unpunished.
The continuous execution of truth under the name of the judiciary, and the issuance of specific provisions that correspond to the current repressive tendencies must be the subject of prosecution one day no doubt. Ikshef maintains the demand to reinvestigating the case and submission of the real perpetrators of the police who fired live bullets on the deceased until the time in which fair trial guarantees are guaranteed.
Ikshef also reminds of nine other journalists killed since July 3, 2013, and their killers remain at large so far.
Links related to witness accounts:
https://www.masress.com/akhbartoday/191728
http://rassd.com/88042.htm
