Activists Ahmed Seif, Gamal Eid and Amr Gharbeya:- Possibility of 4 years imprisonment and fine – Saturday’s 31 July court session – In the series of Abdel Fattah Mourad accusations

Cairo 29^th of Jul 2010

The Khalifeh court of misdemeanor in the Galaa Court compound in Cairo will proceed next Saturday the 31^st of July with the case filed by citizen Abdel Fattah Murad against Gamal Eid, director of the Arab network for human rights information, Ahmed Seif, founder of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and activist and blogger Amr Gharbeya, where he accuses them of threat with defamation, public slander, misuse of the internet, the punishment of which may reach 4 years imprisonment in addition to a fine. The activists had accused Abdel Fattah Mourad of violating copy rights, when he copied tens of pages from a report issued by ANHRI in late 2006 on the freedom of the internet in the Arab world, and published them in his book without reference to the source, as is acknowledged among researchers.

In its previous session dated 17^th of July 2010 the court had postponed the case to the 31^st of July 2010 to hear the witnesses and the defense as well as make its decision on the same day.  It is to be noted that, contrary to the usual, this case has been processed by three different prosecutions: The north Cairo prosecution, the Khalifeh prosecution and the Cairo appeal prosecution.

The Khalifeh prosecution had accused the activists with the following:

• Formation of associations outside the regulations provided by the law
• Helping other offenders escape justice by not mentioning their names and addresses
• Verbal threat of defamation of citizen Murad through an intermediary by demanding 50 thousand pounds
• Production of electronic newsletters without informing the governorate or the directorate in writing.

The Cairo appeal prosecution recommended the transfer fo the case to court replacing the above mentioned charges with a charge of public defamation and slander.

The public prosecutor, on the other hand, maintained the charge of public defamation and slander (punishable by fine), removed the charge of illegal formation of associations and those of helping others escape justice and production of newsletter without reporting, reintroduced the charge of threat of defamation (punishable by two years imprisonment) and added a new accusation of misuse of the internet (punishable by two years imprisonment).

The public prosecutor ignored the memo of the north Cairo prosecution which stated that the complaint does not fall within its local mandate and expressed its concern that its investigations may be annulled on this basis.

This is not the first cases fabricated against human rights activists and bloggers, but rather the third. The administrative court ruled in the first case against the request of citizen Mourad to block tens of electronic websites. The latter then appealed in front of the high administrative court, and the case is still in progress. In the second case the court ruled in the first and second instance in favor of the activists rejecting accusations of slander and defamation of citizen Mourad.

We shall not be silenced nor made to close our eyes regarding the state of major human rights violations in Egypt, which is the one real “crime” our colleagues are being tried for.

Signatories (in alphabetical order)

Arab foundation for the promotion of civil society and human rights

Arab-European center for human rights and international law (Norway)

Association for freedom of thought and expression

Cairo center for development

Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies

Centre for Trade Union and Workers’ Services

Dialogue forum for development and human rights

Egyptian Association for Promotion of Community Participation

Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights

Egyptian federation of young human rights organizations

Egyptian foundation for the promotion of childhood

Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights

Egyptians against religious discrimination

Egyptian Woman Case Institute

El Haq center for democracy and human rights

El Nadim Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence

Federation of Arab human rights defenders

Habi center for environmental rights

Hayatt center for legal aid

Hemaya (Protection) center for support of human rights defenders

Mogtamaena (our community) association for development and human rights

Mosawat (Equality) Center for human rights, Port Said

National foundation for promotion of democracy and human rights

New Woman Foundation

Technological center for human rights

United Journalists Center

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