CAIRO: A prominent Egyptian campaigner was detained yesterday over accusations of insulting President Mohammed Mursi, state media reported, a case activists said highlighted a crackdown on dissent by the Islamist government.
A court in the town of Tanta ruled Ahmed Douma should be held for four days, pending investigation into charges of “deliberately spreading false news and rumours” during two recent television appearances, a court official said.
Douma was accused of calling Mursi a criminal and a murderer, alleged statements the charge sheet said could damage the public opinion of the president.
Dozens of cases of “insulting the president” have been brought in Egypt since Mursi took office last June. Activists said the case was the latest example of the government using the courts to target its liberal and secular opponents.
“They feel that those activists who criticise the president are, according to their words, harming the president, so they try to silence them,” said Hafez Abu Seada, head of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights.
Ziad Al Elaimy, a liberal politician who served in the parliament dissolved last year wrote a statement of support for Douma on his Twitter feed and said Egypt’s dominant Muslim Brotherhood group — which propelled Mursi to power — was behind the case.
“The Muslim Brotherhood sees a threat from the revolutionary youth and the opposition and wants to control them,” Douma’s laywer Ali Soliman Said, who said that man who filed the charge against Douma was a member of the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party. A Brotherhood spokesmen did not respond to phone calls requesting comment.
Television satirist Bassem Youssef, who is often compared to American “Daily Show” comedian Jon Stewart, was summoned by the state prosecutor for questioning last month for allegedly insulting Mursi and Islam.
Reuters
