An appeals court declared that the work of Egyptian journalist Mona Iraqi, who had reported “a gay bathhouse orgy” to the police in late 2014, is “journalistic work that serves public interest.” In the reasoning released by the Cairo misdemeanour appeals court on Wednesday, the reason behind Iraqi’s acquittal of charges of defamation and “publishing false information” is that the intention to “defame” did not exist in her case. Instead, the court’s reasoning went on, Iraqi intended to raise awareness regarding the causes of AIDS or HIV virus and reveal the reasons behind its spread in Egypt, through her TV show “Al-Mestakhabi” (The Hidden), to commemorate World AIDS Day, which the court views as a matter of public interest. The court had reversed on Jan. 19 a six-month prison sentence previously handed to Iraqi in the case dubbed by Egyptian media as the “bab al-bahr bath house” or “Ramses bath house” case. Twenty-six persons had filed a defamation lawsuit against Iraqi for filming a raid by Anti-vice police on a men’s bath house after she had tipped off the police about the “practice of homosexuality” inside the bath house. In…
Egypt Court Declares Filming of ‘Gay Cairo Bathhouse Raid’ as ‘Serving Public Interest’
February 10, 2016
