Egypt

A newspaper editor will be go on trial over his paper's recent reports questioning the health of Egypt's 79-year-old president, Hosni Mubarak. Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the independent daily Al-Dustor, was questioned last week for printing the rumours and released without bail, but the general prosecutor decided Tuesday to send the case to trial, the MENA news agency reported. Eissa's trial on...

Egyptian prosecutors on Wednesday questioned the editor of a prominent independent newspaper about his paper's recent reports on the health of the country's 79-year-old leader, President Hosni Mubarak. Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the independent daily Al-Dustour, was questioned for several hours by prosecutors Wednesday outside Cairo on accusations that he published reports “likely to disturb public...

Egyptian prosecutors on Wednesday questioned the editor of a prominent independent newspaper about his paper's recent reports on the health of the country's 79-year-old leader, President Hosni Mubarak. Ibrahim Eissa and one of his journalists, Sahar Zaki, were sentenced on June 29, 2006 to a year in prison and a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (1,450 euros) on charges of libelling the president...

The editor of an independent Egyptian daily is to face prosecution over his paper's coverage of the state of President Hosni Mubarak's health. Recent speculation about the 79-year-old Mubarak has included his hospitalisation, travel abroad for medical treatment and even death, prompting him to make an unannounced visit to an industrial zone near his summer home on the Mediterranean coast in a bid...

An Egyptian appeals court on Tuesday overturned a one-year jail term on newspaper editor Ibrahim Issa, convicted of defaming President Hosni Mubarak, and substituted a fine of 22,500 Egyptian pounds ($3,950), according to news reports. Ibrahim Issa, editor-in-chief of the independent Al Dustour weekly newspaper, speaks to the media after an Egyptian appeal court overturned a prison sentence...

Twenty-eight months after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak promised to initiate legislations to decriminalise press offences comes a new law which does not do enough to protect journalists from prosecution for reporting stories critical of the government. The law, in fact, sharply increases fines for defamation. The National Assembly, controlled by Mubarak's National Democratic Party, passed the...