A Cairo court has acquitted five prominent figures in the film industry who had been charged with deriding Islam. Wahid Hamed, Lenin al-Ramli, Adel Imam, Sherif Arafa, Nader Galal and Mohamed Fadel had all written, acted in, or directed films that criticised fanaticism or terrorism in the name of Islam
A Cairo court has acquitted five prominent figures in the film industry who had been charged with deriding Islam. Wahid Hamed, Lenin al-Ramli, Adel Imam, Sherif Arafa, Nader Galal and Mohamed Fadel had all written, acted in, or directed films that criticised fanaticism or terrorism in the name of Islam.
Only a few days earlier, another Cairo court had sentenced Imam, Egypt’s top comedian, to three months in prison and a EGP1000 fine for deriding Islam. The sentence, which Imam described as instituting the curtailment of freedom of expression, brought about wide denouncement by liberals and all who are involved in the artistic or creativity fields.
The Freedom of Thought and Creativity Organisation issued a statement in which it welcomed the acquittal of the six of men. It denounced the earlier sentence against Imam, and the contradiction of both rulings for the same crime. It insisted this meant that the court rulings are not based on standard legal principles.
WATANI International
27 April 2012