Sarah Carr reports…

Two court cases involving Al-Dostour editor Ibrahim Eissa were again adjourned on Sunday and Saturday.
On Saturday the Agouza misdemeanors court agreed to the defense’s request that a committee of three media experts be formed to examine whether articles published last year had negatively affected national stability.
The case against editors Adel Hamouda, Ibrahim Eissa, Wael El-Ebrashy and Abdel Halim Qandil was brought last year by lawyer Ibrahim Rabie Abdel Rassoul, a member of the ruling National Democratic Party.
In September 2007, the editors were found guilty of publishing articles which infringed Article 188 of the Penal Code.
Article 188 criminalizes “publishing false information of a nature to disturb public order or security” and were sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and a fine of LE 20,000.
The committee, composed of Al-Ahram’s Amr Hashem Rabie, university professor Awatef Abdel Rahman and head of the Journalists’ Syndicate Makram Mohamed Ahmed will examine newspapers published at the time and give their opinion as to whether the articles published affected national security.
Defense lawyer Mohamed El Damaty questioned the basis of Article 188 of the Penal Code, under which the charges are being brought.
“The provisions of Article 188 are themselves unclear and vague, which makes it extremely difficult to determine whether what was published affected national security.”
Kamal Labidi from the Committee for the Protection of Journalists condemned the case against the four editors.
“This case should never have been brought and accepted,” he said.
“Those who filed the case should have responded to the content of the articles through the media, rather than filing charges… This is a farce designed to harass journalists and narrow the margin of freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Egypt.”
The next hearing in the appeal will be on June 21, 2008.
Today’s highly-charged hearing in the Abbasseya appeals court witnessed confrontations between police and protestors from the April 6 movement protesting the continued detention of individuals arrested in connection with the general strike called for by opposition groups in early April of this year.
Some 30 demonstrators held up placards and chanted slogans in support of Eissa in the court’s main lobby.
Violence erupted at the entrance of the courtroom when members of court security attempted to prevent protestors from entering the courtroom, and in the process stopped members of the defense team from going inside, resulting in physical altercations between lawyers and the police.

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