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Journalist
Ahmed Abu Deraa (C)
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Egyptian journalist Ahmed Abu Deraa was
handed a six month suspended jail sentence and acquitted of other charges.
An
Egyptian military court Saturday handed a journalist a six month suspended jail
term for reporting without authorisation in a military zone of the Sinai, his
lawyer and an army source said.
Ahmed
Abu Deraa was acquitted of two other charges, of spreading "lies"
through his reports on the army's campaign against Islamist militants in the
Sinai Peninsula and of taking pictures of waterways in the Suez Canal, said one
of his lawyers, Mohammed Hanafi.
"My
client has been given a six-month suspended jail term but he is acquitted of
the two other charges," Hanafi said.
The
military court in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya also fined Abu Deraa 200
Egyptian pounds (around $29).
Abu
Deraa, who writes for the independent daily Al-Masry
Al-Youm, was detained on September 4 in north Sinai over reports
that army raids had hit a mosque and houses, as well as injuring civilians.
Authorities
say they are targeting "terrorists" in the lawless Sinai Peninsula
which borders the Gaza Strip, run by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Earlier
this month, Doha Centre for Media Freedom wrote
an open letter to the Egyptian authorities denouncing Ab Deraa’s arrest and
calling for his release.
Military
spokesman Ahmed Ali last month explained Abu Deraa's detention and military
trial.
"Investigations
showed that Mr Abu Deraa spread lies, saying that the Egyptian armed forces
were attacking mosques, women and children. He deliberately spread false
news," Ali told reporters.
"He
also entered military zones."
Such
charges came under the jurisdiction of the military.
Civil
society groups have slammed the increasing number of military trials of
civilians since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on July 3.
Source: DCMF
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