Sunday 08 October 2006, 18:14 Makka Time, 15:14 GMT
Sadat was killed during a military parade on October 6, 1981
A nephew of Anwar Sadat, Egypt's late president, will face a military trial this week after he called his uncle's death an international conspiracy in a television interview.
A military prosecutor charged Talaat Sadat, who also is an opposition lawmaker, with "spreading false rumours and insulting the [Egyptian] armed forces" after questioning him for six hours, officials said on Sunday.
In an interview with the private, Saudi-owned Orbit TV station last week, Talaat Sadat alleged that the assassination was an "international conspiracy" with the participation of his uncle's personal guards and some army commanders.
He claimed both the US and Israel were involved.
Anwar Sadat, the former Egyptian president, was killed during a military parade in Cairo on October 6, 1981.
Sadat also questioned the promotion of some of the guards by the government of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, who replaced Sadat.
Talaat Sadat's trial is scheduled to begin on October 11, they said. He could face a five-year prison term if found guilty.
Sadat has denied the charges, saying the Egyptian government wants to "get rid" of him because he expresses opposition.
No legal concerns
Earlier in the week, Talaat Sadat told the Arabic independent daily, Al Masry Al Youm, he would ask the parliament to form a committee to reinvestigate the circumstances of his uncle's assassination. If the parliament did not agree, he said he would go to the UN.
Following those remarks, Fathi Sorour, Egypt's parliament speaker, stripped Talaat Sadat of his parliamentary immunity - a step necessary to bring any charges against him.
Anwar Sadat's family members have distanced themselves from the former president's nephew, saying Talaat Sadat speaks for himself.
"From a legal point of view, I'm not concerned," Talaat Sadat said on Sunday. "But I'm worried about a vindictive regime, which knows nothing about democracy or respecting lawmakers or citizens."
An Egyptian group also has asked the UN to investigate Sadat's death similar to the UN's effort to look into last year's assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
The group, The Free Egyptians, has collected about 9,270 signatures in an internet petition to Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general.
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Talaat Sadat was found guilty of defaming the army
A military court in Egypt has sentenced the nephew of the country's late president Anwar Sadat to one year in prison for defamation.
In an unusually rapid prosecution, Talaat Sadat, 52, was convicted on Tuesday of defaming the Egyptian armed forces for saying in a television interview earlier this month that unnamed generals had masterminded his uncle's assassination in 1981.
Within minutes of the sentencing, Sadat's supporters shouted outside the court: "This is injustice!" "This is unlawful!"
Sadat is the second prominent political opponent of the government to be sentenced to prison within 12 months. Last December, Ayman Nour, the leading challenger in last year's presidential elections, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for forgery after a trial that was internationally regarded as failing to meet standards of due process.
An outspoken legislator and a lawyer, Talaat Sadat had accused the government of prosecuting him for political reasons. The US State Department had criticised his prosecution, saying it was concerned that it violated freedom of expression.
Media ban
Sadat was taken into custody immediately after the verdict, said his aide, Mohsen Eid.
Egyptian newspapers have been instructed not to report his trial.
There is no appeal against military court verdicts. Sadat's only option is to appeal to Hosni Mubarak, the president.
Sadat had pleaded innocent to charges of "spreading false rumours and insulting the armed forces".
In an interview broadcast on October 4, Sadat said there had been an international conspiracy to assassinate his uncle, and the conspirators included some of Anwar Sadat's personal guards, Egyptian generals, as well as the US and Israel.
"No one from the special personal protection group of the late president fired a single shot during the killing, and not one of them has been put on trial," Sadat told the Saudi TV channel Orbit.
The day after the broadcast, Sadat was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and his trial began on October 11. The parliament will be instructed to drop Sadat's membership, Egypt's official news agency reported later on Tuesday.
President Sadat was shot dead by hardliners in the Egyptian army during a military parade in Cairo on October 6, 1981. The soldiers were opposed to Sadat's landmark peace treaty with Israel of 1979.
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This is messed up! Egypt is a potentially great country, but the laws that allow evildoers to persecute people is un-called for. They are persecuting Copts, persecuting political opponents, persecuting Sadat's nephew, and in the recent past they denyied citizenship to Egyptians whose fathers were foreign, but mothers being Egyptian.........Can you believe this crap?! Salaam
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posted
What a ridiculous trial and prosecution! Egypt should be ashamed. Anyone who doesn't fit in the picture gets imprisoned and media ban on top of it. No wonder Egyptians are the way they are - with this kind of government!!! Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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Egypt: MP Jailed in Latest Attack on Free Expression
03 Nov 2006 17:42:29 GMT Source: Human Rights Watch
(Cairo, November 4, 2006) An Egyptian military court's conviction of an opposition parliamentarian for criticizing the armed forces is the latest attack in the government's crackdown on free expression, Human Rights Watch said today.
On October 31, a military court in Cairo sentenced Talaat al-Sadat, a member of parliament for the opposition al-Ahaly party and nephew of late President Anwar al-Sadat, to one year in prison for "insulting the military and the republican guard."
In the days before the 25th anniversary of his uncle's October 6, 1981 assassination, al-Sadat gave a series of press interviews in which he called for an investigation into the late president's death and accused senior government officials of participating in an international conspiracy that led to the assassination of President Sadat. On October 5, Speaker of the People's Assembly Fathi Surur, acting at the request of Egypt's military prosecutor general, stripped Talaat al-Sadat of his parliamentary immunity to face charges of "spreading false rumors" and "insulting the armed forces and the republican guard" before a military court. Al-Sadat's trial opened on October 11. Throughout his trial, al-Sadat maintained that he was being prosecuted for his opposition to the government.
"Al-Sadat's prosecution and sentence send a chilling message to anyone who dares to raise sensitive issues in Egypt," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "No one should be tried in a military court or any other court for criticizing a public institution or a public official."
Egypt's criminal code contains several laws that allow the government to silence critics. Article 184 of the Penal Code states that "whoever affronts or insults ... the army ... shall be penalized by detention." Article 102(bis) criminalizes "spreading false rumors." Law 97 of 1992 criminalizes a range of nonviolent political activity and allows the president to refer civilians to military courts whose verdicts may not be appealed.
Such laws contravene Egypt's obligations under international law to respect the rights to free expression and to a fair trial. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Egypt ratified in 1982, states that everyone has the right to free expression (article 19). The covenant also affirms that, "Everyone convicted of a crime shall have the right to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law" (article 14).
The practice of trying civilians before military courts raises numerous fair-trial issues under international law. The UN Human Rights Committee ? the body of experts authorized to interpret and monitor compliance with the covenant ? has stated that the trial of civilians by military courts should be very exceptional and occur only under conditions that genuinely afford full due process.
"Al-Sadat should be released immediately," Whitson said. "Once again, the Egyptian government is violating fundamental rights and creating political dissidents instead of openly engaging its critics."
This is the second time in recent months that a military prosecutor has brought charges against someone for insulting the armed forces. On September 11, a military prosecutor summoned Ayhab al-Zalaqi, a journalist for the independent weekly al-Dustur, for "insulting the armed forces" in an August article where he cited works published outside Egypt questioning whether Egypt had won the 1973 war with Israel. Al-Zalaqi told the prosecutor he had expressly distanced himself from these opinions in his article, and the prosecutor did not refer the case to trial.
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