The Imprisonment Ruling of an editor-in-chief

…….is a shock.

The Association of Human Rights Legal  Aid [AHRLA] has received with highly concern and astonishment the news of imprisonment  ruling pronounced by Tanta Misdemeanors Court against both MR/ Ahmed Atoan, the editor-in-chief of “sout algharbia”  newspaper and also the member of  AHRLA, and MR/ Ismael Mohammed Ahmed, the journalist in the same paper. The ruling is imprisonment for six months and paying one thousand bounds as a bail and five thousands as a fine for each one.

The reason  of our astonishment and concern that the ruling condemned MR/Ahmed Atoan in his capacity as the editor-in-chief of the paper or according to the ruling text: “ The first accused ; as an editor-in-chief; was the penal responsible in accordance with the penal law principles, such responsibility is based on the assumption that he has been informed about all the published materials in the paper and he has approved of publishing and he also decided the expected results of publishing, consequently he is penal responsible of the other accused, the journalist, and so the penal responsibility elements actualized in his case and the court imposed to punish the two accused persons” .

[AHRLA] have to remind the court institution that the ruling pronounced by the High Institutional Court within 1997 February, which imposed that it is not institutional for the first paragraph of the article number 195 of the penal law, such paragraph made the editor-in-chief is the penal responsible of the crimes committed by the paper, in his capacity as the main doer of it.

The High Institutional Court concluded that  although the legislator has permission to assumption the mistake in civil default responsibility resulted of neglect of supervision on the paper, the proof on the penal responsibility elements is not actualized, which contrasts with innocence proof and the principle of authorities separation and the defense right.

Meanwhile [AHRLA] declare its initiative to contest this ruling, it also refer to the slowness in the execution of MR/President's resolution about cancellation the imprisonment punishment in publishing and opinion cases!! and the inconsistency of  information wither about preparing  new draft law or presenting it to Ministry of Justice, though the journalists syndicate, the concerned body, has a draft law inspired of  the Egyptian Institution of the year 1971, which secure the press freedom and not allowed any procedures as stopping, cancellation, or alarming by the administrative way, which prevent as a general source interfering in its matters or bonding it by restrict its vital rule in building and developing  societies, and keeping the essential values, and the most important of all is the keeping the dialogue instead of constraint and overcoming, and to deal the press as a real widow for citizens to show all facts.