By Mohammad Baali
Albawaba.com - Cairo
Head of the Egyptian Press Association, Ibrahim Nafe’, and the secretary general of the syndicate, Yehya Qalash, have appealed to the Prosecutor General to release a colleague of theirs who was convicted in a libel case they have filed against him.
Opposition journalist Mohammad Abu Liwaya was found guilty early last week for attacking the association’s top officials in a series of statements he circulated, accusing them of failing to support him when he was fired by his paper, Al Sha’ab.
He was sentenced to a month in jail and a fine.
But according to Nafe’, the conviction is in itself enough and he doesn’t want the man to remain in prison.
It was the first time ever that a head of the press union had sent a colleague to prison.
Nafe’ said that his position as the association chief dictated he had to call for suspending the sentence against Abu Liwaya.
Meanwhile, the association’s council issued Friday a statement defending Egyptian journalists against attacks carried out in the Israeli press accusing the Egyptian journalists of anti-Semitism.
The statement said that defending the rights of the Palestinian people is legitimate and cannot be categorized in this way – Albawaba.com
