Cairo on 23 August 2012

ANHRI denounces the decision of the Criminal Court against editor in chief of “El-Dostor” “Islam Afifi” who is in preventive custody up until the next hearing on September 16, due to a claim of insulting the president and spreading false news despite the lack of the provisions of preventive custody are not applicable to him and its a publishing case.

The 15th Circut of Giza Criminal Court  today adjourned reviewing the case of the   editor in chief of El-Dostor “Islam Afifi” accused him of insulting the president and spreading false news that could harm the public interest, and being custody until the next hearing, after the lawyers asked adjourning the case to review the file of the claim.

Giza First Preliminary Court decided on August 11, 2012 to bring the printed copies of the newspaper in this day and impounded after the failure of a group of generals of the public security and police officers, led by Assistant of the Minister of Interior to get zinc plates of the newspaper from El-Gomhoria press printings because they do not have a warrant, and on August, 13 the Attorney General issued a decision to commit  “Afifi to the Criminal Court due to charges of insulting the president and spreading false news after the completion of the investigations, as well as the inclusion of his name in the lists of the travel ban.

ANHRI asserted its refusal to the decisions of legally unjustified preventive custody, especially in the publishing cases, as it signals of a great danger threatens the freedom of opinion and expression. Especially after the violent campaign established by the authorities against the freedoms of opinion and expression, which included preventing the publication of articles of some writers and journalists as well as the confiscation of a numbers of some newspapers and the attack on the journalists.

ANHRI demands the Egyptian authorities and the Presidency to stop the attack on the freedom of the press and media as well as revoking the  Article no. 179 of the Penal Code, which stipulates that “a person who insults the president shall be jailed” which is one of the remnants of the former regime which the people revolt against it to obtain their freedoms and to resort to civil courts to punish those who violate the law that If the Syndicate of the Journalist did not punish journalists who violets it or refused to publish answer or comment for who views that he is insulted.