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Egypt court reverses conviction of teacher accused of insulting president

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Adawa court of misdemeanors in the Egyptian city of Menya Saturday reversed the conviction of Mounir Saeed Hannah, a teacher charged with insulting President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak by authoring an unpublished satirical poem. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information represented Hanna in his appeal, emphasizing to the court the responsibility of the judiciary as "the first defense front of freedom of expression." Initially unrepresented by counsel, Hanna was convicted and sentenced in June to three years in prison with a bail of 100,000 Egyptian pounds (US$18,000) after one of his coworkers reported the poem. In February, the Agouza appeals court overturned the one year prison sentences of four newspaper editors convicted of defaming Mubarak and the ruling National Democratic Party, but upheld the approximately US$3600 fines against the men.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on July 19, 2009 (boomark / email).