An Egyptian appeals court today overturned a one-year sentence against newspaper editor Ibrahim Issa, convicted of defaming President Hosni Mubarak, and converted it into a fine of £22,500 Egyptian pounds (€3,000).
Defence lawyers and journalists who attended the court session criticised the new ruling because it upheld the conviction. A member of the defence team said they would take their appeal to the highest court in Egypt. "This is still a conviction," said Sayyed Abou-Zeid, one of the lawyers.
"This verdict is an assault on the freedom of the press," he told reporters.
Mr Issa said that the verdict was deceptive. "It is merciful on the outside but torture on the inside," he said. In June, the lower court also found Issa guilty of publishing false news after a lawyer sued his weekly newspaper al-Dustour on behalf of Mubarak for reporting incorrectly that an Egypt citizen had filed a lawsuit against the president.
That lawsuit had allegedly accused Mubarak of selling off state enterprises too cheaply and squandering foreign aid. Egyptian and international human rights groups had criticised the one-year jail sentence, saying it was part of a pattern of trying to silence critics. Mr Issa remained out of jail on bail while the appeal went through.
In his writings in al-Dustour, the 41-year-old journalist and writer regularly attacks Mr Mubarak, referring to him as the "pharaoh dictator". Authorities closed his newspaper for seven years from 1998 for its anti-government line.
Mr Issa's novel, The Killing of the Big Man, was banned in 1999 for its obvious allusions to Mr Mubarak and was finally published n 2006.
As a court official read the verdict, some people shouted "Innocence" but later expressed shock when the conviction was maintained.