ANHRI expresses its irritation by the judgment issued by Helwan Misdemeanor Court, in yesterday court hearing, which sentenced “Ashrf Nabil” and his assistant “Ahmed Helmy Abdulsamd” to a suspended six-month prison term, as well as a fine of EGP 200. They were filming a short movie about election bribery on 11 June when they were detained by campaign members of the former candidate for the presidency elections “Ahmed Shafik”, as the campaign members pressed the charges against him for “publishing false news , although the short movie did not finished or being showed yet.
The case facts are, on June 8, “Ashrf Nabil” was filming a short movie about election bribery titled “Do not Sell” in Helwan, when he was surprisingly attacked by some supporters of the former candidate for the presidency elections, when he was detained by campaign staff of Shafiq. They took him and his fellow “Ahmed Helmy”, an actor in the documentary, to Helwan police station and pressed the charges against them for “publishing false news about a presidential candidate.” Therefore, the decree of Helwan Public Prosecution, issued of the preventive custody of 4 days against them, as well as the seizure and the presentation of their third fellow “Abdulah Hasan”, who accompanied them in filming the short movie. Then the public prosecution committed them to the court, who has set an urgent hearing for adjudication.
ANHRI said that “the recognized fair trial guarantees were not provided in the trial of Ashrf. It represents a breach to the judiciary independence, because of the bias in favor of the political will instead of law. That resulted in imparting the legal form on the freedom’s repressions and restricting of the opposing voices. The Judgment represents a violation of the freedom of opinion and expression, particularly, the documentary did not exceeded the limits of the permissible criticism. Such criticism should have been protected by the court instead of punishing the young who used that legitimate right”.The legal support unit of freedom of expression, it will appeal such judgment of convicting the director and his fellow
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