Sorour slams EU accusations on human rights in Egypt
Egypt-European Union, Politics, 4/19/2003

The European Parliament resolution on Egypt's human rights abuses is nothing but premature judgment and unfair exaggeration of dangerous issues, Parliament Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour said Friday.

"Egypt's penal code does not include punitive measures against the homosexuals as the country's law by no means interfers in the private affairs of individuals," Sorour said in a letter sent to the EU Parliament chief Pat Cox.

"So the case was one of publicly practicing acts that demonstrate a degradation of religions and instigation for licentiousness," he added, referring to the case of 21 Egyptian homosexuals convicted on March 15.

"So we must respect the people's choice of their legal system and protect their religious and cultural values," he said.

Sorour said that dialogue among religions should not depend on "selectivity or superiority, nor giving lessons and combining the roles of a party and a judge at the same time."

ÊÊÊ As for people arrested in the last demonstrations against the Iraq war in Cairo, Sorour said they were all released a few days after their arrest.

The freedom of expression is an inalienable right to all the people, he said.

Sorour also rejected the EU Parliament's welcoming of the release of director of Ibn Khaldoun research centre Saad Eddin Ibrahim.

"It was the court of cessation's ruling to drop charges against Ibrahim, and we do not accept the EU parliament to welcome it for the same reasons that made us reject its previous criticisms of his conviction."

The People's Assembly Speaker also slammed charges of persecution of Coptic Christians in the country.

The Egyptians, both Muslims and Christians, reject all attempts of foreign interference in their affairs, he said.

Previous Stories:
  Egypt considers human rights council   (4/15/2003)
  Egypt finds Saad Ibrahim as not guilty   (3/19/2003)
  Coptic Church: attacking Iraq is against Christianity   (3/12/2003)
  Some 94 persons convicted in al-Kashah incidents found not guilty, two sentenced   (2/28/2003)
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