Hossam el-Hamalawy
Some good news for a change… Gamal Eid called a minute ago to say that Judge Murad’s case was thrown out. Our blogs and websites won’t be blocked. Gamal will issue a statement today with more details…
Mabrouk for all of us.
UPDATE: A statement on today’s verdict.
On Dec 29, we shall finally get the verdict in Judge Murad‘s lawsuit against the govt, demanding the banning of 51 websites and blogs including mine, under the claim that they are harmful to national security and insulting to the president.
The Arabic network for human rights information and Hisham Mubarak Law Center, two human rights organizations, stated today that the next Saturday December 29, 2007, will witness a very significant event. The administrative court will issue a sentence that will affect the future of internet & its freedom in Egypt. The sentence will be issued in the case that was filed by the judge Abdul Fattah Murad last February. Judge Murad launched his case demanding the banning of 51 websites in Egypt. He alleged that such websites defame, in their contents, the Egyptian government. The case came as a consequence of the detection of an assault against the intellectual property of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information by Judge Murad, as he published a profiting book containing dozens of copied pages pages of one of the network reports without referring to the source.
The pro-US dictator continues his crackdown on the opposition and independent press:
Reporters Without Borders today condemned a sentence of one-month’s forced labor imposed on editor of al-Wafd, Anwar Al-Hawari and Younes Darwish, the daily’s correspondent in Assiut, 380 kms south of Cairo, for “publishing false news” about fraud by two members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
Darwish wrote an article that appeared in March 2007 based on a meeting of the regional municipal council in Assiut, during which two lawyers, both NDP members, were accused of illegally obtaining land belonging to the ministry of Islamic affairs.
The correspondent said that he had made no judgement about the two complainants but the local court nevertheless sentenced Anwar Al-Hawari and Younes Darmish to a month of forced labor. They will remain free while awaiting the outcome of their appeal, which is due to open on 5 January 2008.
“The growing number of court cases brought against Egyptian journalists is in complete contradiction with Hosni Mubarak’s electoral programme,” the worldwide press freedom organization said. “He promised at the start of his new mandate to decriminalise press offences.”
I received also a statement from HRINFO, which you can read here.