Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

Tomorrow the Egyptian Administrative Court is to end the controversy about Al-Nabaa newspaper. The lawsuit was started by the Supreme Press Council, which is trying to take away the license of Al-Nabaa, and thus stop all its activities... Mahran crowded hundreds of Al-Nabaa’s workers in the courthouse.



Led by Magdi Al-Agati, the court started looking into the first case by receiving a memorandum from Counselor Farouq Hassan, the representative of the state. The memo focused on Al-Nabaa’s continuous acts to damage public interests, in addition to threatening Egypt’s peace and stirring up sectarian strife. Dr. Ahmed Saad, the attorney for Al-Nabaa, replied by saying that the press law stated, "a journalist’s opinion must not be a reason to threaten his/her safety." "If Mahran has made a mistake by publishing information or pictures in one edition, then his punishment was confiscation of that edition by a court order. It is illegal to campaign in order to punish every worker in the press house for this. The press house is a source of income for hundreds of journalists, clerics, and workers. Who will pay off all the loans the press house has obtained from banks?" he added.



The court also allowed representatives of Pope Shenouda and the church to speak. "Al-Nabaa’s editions did not care about the foundations of society. It defamed Copts and their religion. It cannot be a case of freedom of opinion or publication. Freedom does not mean violating the constitution or laws. It should not exceed the freedom of the ordinary citizen." said Naguib Gibra’el.



The court then looked into another lawsuit started by Mamdouh Mahran, owner and editor-in-chief of Al-Nabaa, who is trying to override a verbal ruling by the Minister of Interior prohibiting the press house from operating. The government’s representative replied by claiming that there was no such ruling made. Nabih Al-Wahish, attorney for Al-Nabaa, then asked the court for a copy of the previous court session to use in restarting the issuing of publications from the press house. The court will make its decision in this case tomorrow.



Afterwards, the court looked into another case by Mahran in which he claimed Presidential Decree number one was unconstitutional. This decree gives the president the right to refer some cases to the Emergency State Security Courts to be tried according to the Emergency Law. "When parliament passed the Emergency Law, it restricted it only to terrorism and drugs cases." said Mahran’s attorney. The court decided to defer the case until the session of Tuesday next.



[Translators note: similar news items were published in Al-Akhbar, July 3, 2001 (p.1&22); Al-Ahrar, July 3, 2001 (p.1&8); Al-Ahrar, July 4, 2001 (p.8)]