H.E. Mohammed Hosni Mubarak
President
Oruba Palace, Sharia Oruba
Heliopolis, Cairo
Arab Republic of Egypt
Fax: (011.20.2) 795-3192
Your Excellency:
It is shocking to learn that a court in Egypt has sentenced a journalist to two years in jail given your public commitment this past February to end prison sentences for press offences.
Ahmed Ezzedine, a journalist with the independent weekly, Al-Osbou, was found guilty of libel, fined 20,000 pounds and sentenced to two years in jail. Ezzedine did not appear at the trial and has gone into hiding to avoid imprisonment. The charges stemmed from an article he wrote in the newspaper’s June 23, 2003 issue, accusing Egypt’s deputy prime minister and agriculture minister of falsely testifying at the trial of Maher al-Guindy, the former governor of Giza who was convicted of taking bribes in 2002.
Your Excellency, as you know, the emerging international consensus is that journalists should not be subject to criminal prosecution for doing their work as journalists. As you claimed in an interview with Le Monde, published in April, journalists in your country enjoy “total” press freedom. In such a strong, positive, democratic environment, how can a journalist be found guilty of defaming public officials and given a jail sentence just for doing the essential work of a journalist? Certainly, the Egyptian public must be kept informed of cases of possible corruption.
We applaud your support of the pending legislation to revise Egypt’s criminal code so that journalists cannot be jailed for their work. In addition, we urge you to pursue all legal options to insure reversal of Ezzedine’s jail sentence, an affirmation of your commitment to press freedom for Egypt.
Respectfully yours,
Norman A. Schorr Kevin McDermott
Co-chairmen, Freedom of the Press Committee
cc: Atef Mohamed Ebeid
Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
Sharia Maglis esh-Sha’ab
Cairo
Arab Republic of Egypt
Fax: (011.20.2) 355-8048
Nabil Fahmy
Ambassador of Egypt to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt
3521 International Court, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 244-5131
Ambassador Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Arab Republic of Egypt
to the United Nations
304 East 44th Street
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 949-5999
C. David Welch
U.S. Ambassador to Egypt
Embassy of the United States of America
8 Kamal El Din Salah Street
Garden City, Cairo
Egypt
Fax: (011.20.2) 797-3200