Nabīl, who had a retrial for the first time, had received a three-year term in the public opinion case before a challenge presented by his lawyer was accepted.
Officials said that Nabīl was tried over charges of affronts against the armed forces, adding the Egyptian blogger failed to prove that he was not responsible for the content of his blog that contained false accusations against the army. ['Alī Shām, al-Ahrām, Dec. 15, p. 29] Read the original text in Arabic
Meanwhile, Cairo International Airport authorities on Dec. 14 allowed the departure of Tāriq al-Zumur, the media spokesman for the al-Jamā'ah al-Islāmīyah (Islamic Group) and a former leading member of the al-Jihād Organization, out of Egypt after he obtained an approval by the interior ministry.
Official sources at the airport said that while checking passports of passengers of a Tunisia-bound plane it turned out that Zumur, who had been charged with assassinating former Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadāt, was among the passengers.
Contacts were made with the top officials of the interior ministry who approved Zumur's departure, he added. (Hishām 'Abd al-'Azīz, al-Ahrām, Dec. 15, p. 29) Read the original text in Arabic
On the other hand, Bansee 'Ismat, the executive director of the January 25 revolution victims' socio-health care fund, said that Maj. General Muhsin al-Fanjarī, a member of the provisional ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), gave instructions to speed up registering on Dec. 18 the names of martyrs in the recent Muhammad Mahmūd street incidents.
The fund will release monthly pensions for the families of the January 25 revolution martyrs, surveyed as 644, with retroactive effect as of Dec. 15, 2011 in addition to a financial support of LE30,000 per each family, making a total of LE20 million, with the exception of the dead from Maspero and Muhammad Mahmūd incidents.
The fund also offered 35 hajj (pilgrimage) opportunities, in addition to 29 hajj cases through coordination with the ministry of social affairs. [Hibah Sa'īd, al-Ahrām, Dec. 15, p. 13] Read the original text in Arabic
Al-Akhbār of Dec. 15 published a front-page report on the Egyptian foreign ministry's summoning of Dutch ambassador in Cairo Susan Blankhart to express Egypt's strong condemnation of Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilder' book defaming Islam.
The ministry conveyed to Ambassador Blankhart that the book reflects a culture of hatred and disdain of religions that ignores the simplest rules of international law and human rights covenants. [Author not mentioned, al-Akhbār, December 15, 2011, p. 3] Read text in Arabic
A report by al-Misrī al-Yawm newspaper of Dec. 15 read that a British foundation was criticizing the Egyptian education curricula and called for modifying them in order to reach genuine democracy.
The study, which was prepared by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE), formerly known as the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP), was discussed by the British House of Lords through an initiative by Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
There can be no real democracy in Egypt unless the values of citizenship, equality among followers of different religions and refraining from describing non-Muslims as infidels are firmly established and deeply-rooted within the society. [Muhammad al-Buhayrī, al-Misrī al-Yawm, December 15, 2011, p. 18] Read the original text in Arabic
