CAIRO: Egypt’s president, in his first use of legislative powers he wrested back from the army this month, issued a law Thursday to bar the detention pending trial of defendants involved in offenses related to the media, an official said.
 
The announcement by President Mohammad Mursi came hours after a court ordered the detention pending trial of the editor-in-chief of an opposition newspaper on charges of insulting the president.
 
The decision may go some way to deflecting criticism that the Islamist president, who took office on June 30, has cracked down on media that is opposed to his rule.
 
“In the first use of legislative power, President Mursi issued a decree with a law not to allow temporary detention in crimes related to the press,” presidential spokesman Yasser Ali told Reuters.
 
State prosecutors filed charges against two journalists last week, including Islam Afifi, editor-in-chief of Al-Dustour daily, a vociferous opponent of Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood. A criminal court ordered Afifi detained Thursday, pending trial over accusations of insulting Mursi.
 
In a noisy court session, the head prosecutor from Cairo’s Criminal Court ordered Afifi held in custody and scheduled his trial for mid-September. He read out a long list of defamation charges including “insulting the president via a publication” and “spreading rumors that could disturb public safety and harm public interest.”
 
Judge Mohammad Shahin told the court that the case would be adjourned to Sept. 16.
 
Speaking by telephone to Reuters after that ruling but before Mursi’s legislation was passed, Afifi described the detention order as a “real test” and asked “every state apparatus to stand against attempts to suppress and silence voices.”
 
Supporters of the defendant shouted in protest as the decision was read to the packed courtroom. Rights groups quickly expressed indignation at the decision, and the national journalists association, the Press Syndicate, called for an emergency meeting.
 
“Al-Dustour editor-in-chief Islam Afifi will be released according to the [presidential] decree,” Ali said.
 
The case against Afifi is one of several lawsuits brought mainly by Egypt’s Islamists against journalists, accusing them of inflammatory coverage and inciting the public against the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest political group.
 
Another prominent case is that of TV presenter Tawfiq Okasha, who was charged with suggesting the murder of Mursi during a talk show aired on private Al-Faraeen TV earlier this month.
 
The network was taken off the air and Okasha was banned from travel pending his trial in early September. Lawsuits have also been brought against the editors-in-chief of Al-Fagr and Sawt al-Umma weeklies on similar accusations.
 
On Aug. 12, Mursi dismissed top generals who had led a military council that ruled Egypt after the fall of Hosni Mubarak last year and he also canceled a decree the army had issued that gave it legislative powers in the absence of parliament.
 
The army, based on a court order, had dissolved the Islamist-led parliament shortly before issuing the decree that was seen as a bid to rein in Mursi’s role.
 
Mursi’s move to scrap that order gives him both executive and legislative powers. Opponents have accused him of concentrating too much power in his hands.
 
In what critics said was an act to stifle the media, one edition of Al-Dustour was confiscated this month, though some copies still hit the newsstands. The paper is owned by the head of the liberal Wafd party, a group that pulled out of an electoral alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood.
 
Mursi drew further criticism when the Islamist-dominated upper house of parliament, which was not dissolved, appointed new editors to several state newspapers.