Islam Afifi, the chief editor of el-Dustour newspaper, center, attends a court hearing in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012. A Cairo court on Thursday ordered the chief editor of an Egyptian newspaper detained pending trial on charges of insulting the country’s president and “spreading lies.” The case against Afifi of the privately-owned el-Dustour daily is one of several lawsuits brought mainly by Egypt’s Islamists against journalists, accusing them of inflammatory coverage and inciting the public against the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest political group.CAIRO – Egypt’s president intervened to release a newspaper editor jailed over accusations of insulting him on Thursday, issuing a law for the first time since he assumed legislative powers earlier this month.
President Mohammed Morsi’s ban on detention for journalists accused of publishing-related offenses overrides a court decision earlier in the day ordering newspaper editor Islam Afifi to remain in prison pending trial in September.
The court’s decision and case against Afifi, accused of slandering the president and undermining public interest, has caused uproar in Egypt among journalists and intellectuals, with dozens holding a protest Thursday night in Cairo demanding the protection of free speech.
The decree affecting those awaiting trial for offenses such as libel, defamation and slander is the first law Morsi issued since taking over legislative authorities in the absence of a parliament, and following a decision to retire a cadre of generals with whom he had shared power earlier this month.
Morsi, who was sworn in as president in late June, issued the law just hours after a Cairo court ordered the imprisonment of Afifi, editor of the privately-owned el-Dustour daily. Egypt’s official news agency reported shortly thereafter that the attorney general had ordered Afifi’s release.