The editor of an Egyptian daily is to face trial accused of damaging the ”public interest” by publishing rumours on President Hosni Mubarak’s health, the public prosecutor said on Tuesday.
Ibrahim Eissa, the outspoken editor of al-Destur, is to appear in court on October 1 ”for publishing false information and rumours in bad faith about the president’s illness causing harm to public interest”, the prosecutor’s statement said.
Speculation about Mubarak, widely reported in the press, has included his hospitalisation, travel abroad for medical treatment and even death, prompting the president to make several public appearances to quell the rumours.
The prosecutor’s report also accuses Eissa of harming the country’s economy after the rumours allegedly ”caused foreign investors to withdraw investments worth more than $350-million from the stock exchange”.
Eissa, whose newspaper was once closed by the government for five years, was convicted last year of insulting Mubarak in an article describing a lawsuit against the president.
The editor, who has not been jailed pending the outcome of an appeal, has long been known for his confrontational style of journalism and repeated criticism of the government.
He expressed shock last week when he was summoned to the state security prosecutor over his paper’s coverage.
”All the independent and state dailies have written about the subject and no one else has been summoned,” he said. ”This is a way of settling scores with al-Destur and with me for all I that have written.”
The summons came a day after First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, in a rare television interview, called on those responsible for the health scare to be held to account. — Sapa-AFP