Egyptians jailed in Sudan freed on appeal

January 4, 2008 (CAIRO) — Two Egyptians jailed by a Sudan court for six months for marketing a book deemed offensive to Aisha, one of the Prophet Mohammed’s wives, have been freed on appeal, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Abdel Fattah Abdelraouf and Mahrous Mohamed Abdelaziz arrived back in Cairo on Thursday, foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki told AFP.

Sudanese Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi said on Dec. 11 following the pair’s arrest that they were guilty of bringing over the book entitled “Aisha, mother of believers, devoured her sons” from bookseller and publisher Madbouli in Egypt and selling it in Sudan.

Raouf and Aziz were sentenced under article 125 of Sudan’s penal code, the same section under which U.K. teacher Gillian Gibbons was convicted after allowing her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed, the daily Al-Rai al-Am reported on Dec. 17.

Gibbons was sentenced on Nov. 29 to 15 days in prison before being expelled from the country.

Under article 125, Raouf and Aziz could have faced 40 lashes and a fine, as well as the jail sentence.

Mardhi said last month the book they imported “contains blasphemous passages and particularly despicable offenses to the prophet and to the mother of believers,” as Aisha is often called.

(AFP)