Egypt sentences TV producer over torture tapes

CAIRO, May 2 (Reuters) An Egyptian court sentenced Al Jazeera producer Huweida Taha Metwalli to six months in jail or a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds today for her part in producing a feature on torture by Egyptian police.

Metwalli was arrested in January while the Qatar-based Arabic television channel was collecting material for the feature, including recordings of real torture incidents and reconstructed torture scenes using actors.

She was charged with damaging the country's supreme interests and possessing fabricated video material that would damage Egypt's reputation, with intent to broadcast it.

''The scenes included acted scenes which are at variance with reality .... and recorded conversations which include slander against the police and their integrity,'' said the ruling by the Nuzha Misdemeanours Court in Cairo.

The court also fined her 20,000 pounds separately, judicial sources said. Released earlier on bail, Metwalli is in Qatar and did not attend the trial. The Al Jazeera office in Cairo said she would appeal the verdict and the sentence.

The independent Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights called the sentence ''a new setback for freedom of opinion and expression and a serious violation ... of the constitution''.

It called on the Egyptian government and parliament to fulfil President Hosni Mubarak's 2004 promise to abolish custodial sentences for publishing offences.

The release of secretly recorded scenes of abuse and torture over the past year has thrown new light on Egyptian police brutality against detainees and suspects at police stations.

One of the best known recordings, widely circulated on the Internet, is of bus driver Emad el-Kabir being sodomised with a stick. Two policemen are on trial on charges of abusing Kabir at a Cairo police station in January 2006.

Human rights groups say torture is standard practice in the interrogations at Egyptian police stations. The authorities say cases are exceptional and they prosecute offenders.

REUTERS RS RAI2122