His Excellency Hosni Mubarak
President
Presidential Palace
Cairo
Egypt
Vienna, 21 June 2001
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives, strongly condemns the criminal charges brought against Mamduh Mahran, chief editor of the independent newspapers, Al-Nabaa and Akhir Khabar, and Wahid Ghazi, editor-in-chief of Al-Muwajaha newspaper.
According to our sources, Mahran was detained by Egyptian police and interrogated by the state prosecution service on 17 June. He was released two days later after paying a bail bond of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (US$ 2,570). The state prosecution is reportedly charging Mahran on several counts, including disturbing the peace, publishing items about a religious group that could lead to public contempt, religious sedition and printing indecent images. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison.
The charges against Mahran stem from front-page articles in the 17 June editions of Al-Nabaa and Akhir Khabar, in which a Coptic Christian monk was purportedly shown in a photo with a naked woman and described as first having sexual intercourse with women and then extorting them. The ex-monk in question had been excommunicated by the Coptic Church in 1996, and is himself being investigated by the state prosecution. The photos in the articles were taken from a videotape which had reportedly already been circulated in Upper Egypt for 100 Egyptian pounds (US$ 26) a copy. Apparently, copies of the tape had been seized by security forces and then, either by black market purchase or through a leak in the state security forces, a copy had made its way to Al-Nabaa.
Aside from the charges against Mahran, 1,000 issues of the two newspapers have been seized by the authorities, the newspapers have been shut down temporarily and the Coptic Church has filed a libel suit against the newspapers. The Syndicate of Journalists is reportedly planning to take measures against “sensationalist” newspapers in response to this case, and, together with the Egyptian Press Council, it has reportedly decided to take legal action to suspend Mahran’s publishing license.
In a separate case, Wahid Ghazi is also being charged for printing unethical photos. Around 600 copies of the 12 June and 19 June issues of Al-Muwajaha newspaper have been seized by the authorities.
IPI regards the incarceration of journalists, the seizure of newspapers and the suspension of media outlets as gross violations of everyone’s right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” as guaranteed by Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We urge Your Excellency to ensure that the planned criminal charges against Mahran and Ghazi are dropped immediately and unconditionally. We believe there are ample means of redress in a civil court or through non-prohibitive media self-regulation. We further urge you to ensure that Al-Nabaa, Akhir Khabar and Al-Muwajaha are allowed to resume publishing unhindered and that Egypt’s journalists are allowed to carry out their profession without further harassment.
We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director
