Legal News

Egyptian Editor, Convicted of False Reporting, Faces Jail

By Dan Slater

Coincidentally, the last time the Law Blog touched on Egypt, we were writing about a First Amendment issue. Today, we have more free- speech news related to the country. (Yes, it’s law and the press day here at the law blog ….)

Ibrahim Eissa, editor of Egypt’s Al-Dustour, was sentenced to six months in prison for reporting that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was in a coma. The judge in the case said the report caused panic among foreign investors and threatened Egypt’s economy. Eissa will be allowed to post 200 Egyptian pounds ($40) bail to avoid serving his sentence while he appeals. Here’s a CNN report.

“The state has been put at risk,” Judge Sherif Mustafa reportedly said while reading the court verdict aloud. “He reported false news about the president’s health which he knew were fabricated. . . .Investors withdrew their investment from the country and the stock market collapsed, costing the economy some $350 million.”

Eissa, who did not appear during the trial, reportedly denounced the ruling as politically motivated. “Is this a legal or political verdict? Is this a warning to journalists not to touch the President and not to write about anything related to him?” he said in an interview with Al-Jazeera network.

According to the CNN report, the case started when Eissa published a story in August saying that President Mubarak had lapsed into a coma. Mubarak didn’t comment on the article until he appeared in photos, weeks later, and gave an interview to state-run media. Days later, in a television appearance, first lady Suzanne Mubarak said her husband was healthy and that journalists who reported otherwise deserved to be punished.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 26, 2008 (boomark / email).