Journalists Jailed in Egypt One More Time

AFP- CAIRO, May 25 -- Three Egyptian journalists and a lawyer were charged by a criminal court on Wednesday for denouncing state-sponsored fraud in last year's parliamentary elections, judicial sources said.

Wael Al Ibrashi and Hoda Abu Bakr, both journalists with the independent Sawt al-Umma weekly, were charged with slandering a local electoral commission chief and publishing the names of judges allegedly involved in fraud.

Similar charges were brought against Abdel Hakim Abdel Hamid, the chief editor of Afaq Arabiya (Arab Horizons) - considered the mouthpiece of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood - as well as a lawyer close to the Islamist movement, Gamal Tag El Din.

The publications had claimed that they had obtained the list of judges accused of being involved in rigging electoral results from the lawyers' syndicate, where the Muslim Brotherhood is well represented. More…

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