The case refers to a story published in Al-Dostour independent daily, issue No 55, dated 5 April 2006, by the editor Sahar Zaki, and titled "Citizen (Lawyer) from Waraq Al-Arab area prosecutes Mubarak and his family, and claim for restitution of 500 milliards EGP as the value of the public sector and the foreign aids".
Using his constitutional right to prosecution, the lawyer, Siad Abdallah, filed the case before the Administrative Court versus the President, the head of the Constitutional Court, the Minister of Justice, the People's Assembly chairman, Mrs. Suzan Thabet (Suzan Mubarak) as a chairman of Women National Council, and Gamal Mubarak the head of the committee of policies and P.A. general secretary in the NDP.
In the memo, Abdallah claimed that the President does not respect the republic system, has turned Egypt's regime into a semi- royal regime that impoverished people and misuses his position to make personal benefits at the expense of the state's economic infrastructure.
"This sentence is a return of the Hesba cases (Guardianship cases) and the Inquisition. Journalists are not to be held accountable for publishing facts, similar to the case filed by Said Abdallah" said Gamal Eid, HRinfo's executive director. "Such sentence is not surprising, we realize that there are certain bodies intercept journalists and journalism in Egypt. Essa and al-Dostour's editors are continuously fighting for press freedom and journalists freedom against the anti- free speech wings" Eid added.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information calls upon freedom of expression defending organizations and bodies to increase their efforts aiming at changing the anti-free speech laws and pressuring the government to fulfill the presidential pledge to abolish imprisonment in cases of freedom of expression.
Worthy mentioning that Essa is renowned for his continuous struggle for freedom of expression, he is also a member in HRinfo's advisory council and a mortal enemy for all those who hamper free speech in Egypt, thus the case filed against him and the other editor comes within the many attempts to silence the anti-corruption journalism that stands against the authoritative political regime in Egypt.
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