His Excellency President Hosni Mubarak
Abedine Palace
Cairo
Arab Republic of Egypt

Vienna, 16 September 1997

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI) condemns the heavy penalties imposed on members of the London-based Arabic daily Asharq al-Awsat.

On Sunday, 14 September, a Cairo-criminal court sentenced the Saudi owners of Asharq al-Awsat, Hisham and Mohammad Ali Hafez, as well as editor-in-chief Osmane al-Amir, to one year in prison with hard labour for libelling Your Excellency’s sons, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, in an article accusing them of involvement in corrupt deals. The court also gave the same sentence to managing editor Fawziya Salama and sub-editor Gamal Ismail. All five were fined US$ 6,000 each. Egyptian journalist Sayed Abdel Ati, who wrote the article and was the only staff member of Asharq al-Awsat present in court, was sentenced to six months in jail with hard labour and fined US$ 4,500.

Charges were filed against Asharq al-Awsat after Alaa and Gamal Mubarak complaned to the prosecutor about the allegations, which were published in an advertisement for an issue of Asharq al-Awsat’s sister magazine, Al-Jadida. Despite the fact that the article was withdrawn from distribution and Asharq al-Awsat published apologies, the Mubaraks pursued the charges. On 11 September, Asharq al-Awsat announced it was closing its representative office in Cairo to protest the trial.

(IPI), the global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in over 100 countries, condemns the court’s verdict, which is grossly disproportionate to the offence, and strongly urges that the journalists’ sentences be annulled. We further urge that the media in Egypt be judged by civil libel laws and not by criminal statutes.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director