The Economic Court, at its session today, Saturday, sentenced publisher, politician and writer Hisham Kassem to 6 months in prison, a fine of EGP 20,000 and compensation of EGP 10,000, in case No. 1327 of 2023 Cairo Economic Misdemeanours, registered as No. 2021 of 2023 Financial Misdemeanours, filed against him by politician Kamal Abu Eita, the former minister of manpower, accusing him of insult and defamation.
Kassem, a publisher and human rights defender, was referred to the Public Prosecution on 20 August. Kassem is the chairman of the board of trustees of Egypt’s “Free Current”, which includes liberal opposition parties. Kamal Abu Eita, a member of the Presidential Pardon Committee and one of the most prominent Nasserists participating in the National Dialogue, had filed an insult and defamation complaint against Kassem, which led to Kassem’s arrest on charges of insult, defamation and verbal assault.
In a report, Human Rights Watch criticised the Egyptian authorities’ detention of Kassem, which it described as unlawful, and his referral to trial over his “peaceful criticism”. The report said that “the Egyptian government charged Kassem with insulting and defaming a former minister through Facebook posts by Kassem, which it described as peaceful, in addition to charges it described as vague and overbroad of disturbing the authorities and defaming police officers”.
The organisation urged the authorities to release Kassem immediately or to present evidence of a specific criminal offence, saying that “the use of criminal defamation laws by the Egyptian authorities to silence critics such as Hisham Kassem is one of many tools Cairo uses to ensure that critical expression leads directly to prison”.
It is worth noting that a number of political forces and human rights organisations have called on the Egyptian authorities to release Kassem immediately and unconditionally.
In a joint statement, 12 Egyptian human rights organisations said that the lawyers representing Kassem had not yet been able to obtain a copy of his case file, which undermines his due process rights. The organisations added: “This detention of Kassem comes after his participation in founding the Free Current coalition, a coalition of liberal political parties and opposition figures seeking to offer alternative economic policies.”
The organisations stressed that the Egyptian authorities’ targeting of Kassem came because of his peaceful opposition and his pro-democracy work, and also expressed their fear that Kassem would join the tens of thousands of political prisoners who have faced harsh sentences after sham trials, or who have been held in pretrial detention for many years.
They said: “Despite its appalling human rights record over the past decade, Egypt continues to receive significant financial and economic support from Western governments and international financial institutions.” They continued: “While the Egyptian authorities have recently claimed to be addressing the human rights situation, Kassem’s detention and the arbitrary measures that recently coincided with it are another indication that they lack any intention to change course.” The organisations called on the international community to demand the release of Kassem and other detained political prisoners.
An Imminent Withdrawal from Participation in the Presidential Election
Egypt is preparing to hold a presidential election expected to take place by the end of this year, while a National Dialogue is under way that includes different spectrums of Egyptian society, among them some opposition parties.
The “Free Current”, made up of liberal opposition parties, threatened in a statement announced at a press conference at the end of last month to withdraw from participating in any upcoming electoral contests and to freeze the activities of its parties if Kassem’s pretrial detention continued.
Although the Egyptian authorities released hundreds of detainees and prisoners held in cases related to freedom of opinion and expression within the framework of the so-called Presidential Pardon Committee affiliated with the National Dialogue, the pace of arrests has escalated again. Recently, Reporters Without Borders, PEN International and the International Federation of Journalists condemned the detention of the father of Belgium-based Egyptian journalist Ahmed Gamal Ziada on charges of spreading “false information”, after security forces questioned him about his son’s journalistic work, even though Ziada’s father uses social media only to promote a clothing workshop he runs. Several international organisations accused the Egyptian authorities of seeking “to silence journalists in exile”.
For her part, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, condemned “a retaliatory measure against the work of Ahmed Gamal Ziada”.
