A prison sentence issued against prominent journalist Dima Sadek had drawn condemnation in Lebanon.
Sadek was sentenced to a year in prison by a Beirut judge, after the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil, accused her of defamation and slander. The journalist, who plans to appeal, was also ordered to pay a fine of LBP110 million.
Bassil filed his lawsuit in 2020 after Sadek described FPM supporters as “Nazi-like” and racist after an attack, in the coastal town of Jounieh, on two men from the northern city of Tripoli.
The news of the verdict was widely denounced on social media.
Parliament’s Media and Communications Committee called on the judiciary to “seek justice and integrity without favoritism or politicization.”
The Syndicate of Lebanese Press Editors issued a statement, expressing its absolute rejection of the deprivation of freedom of any journalist, who committed a publishing violation, whether in print, audio or electronic means.
The head of the syndicate, Joseph Al-Qusaifi, told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The Court of Appeal must look at this issue from a different angle, so that it has two options: either dismiss the case or refer it to the Penal Code.”
For his part, lawyer, human rights activist and former deputy, Ghassan Mokheiber, considered that what happened with Sadek was a “precedent.”
“It is a precedent, yes, because even with crimes of slander and defamation, the courts issued financial fines, even if the law permitted imprisonment,” he said,
“There is a long and ongoing dispute over the competence of the ordinary criminal courts and the publications court. There is also a controversy on how to apply rulings related to writings through social media and all opinion crimes,” he added.
