Egypt president issues law to free news editor

Associated Press, by Maggie Michael, Aug. 23, 2012

Egyptian Vice President, Mahmoud Mekki, left, President Mohammed Morsi,
 second left, Prime Minister Hesham Kandil, third left, and the Grand Sheik of
Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, right, attend Eid al-Fitr prayers in Amr Ibn Al-As
 mosque to mark the start of a three-day Muslim holiday that marks the end
of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012. In his sermon,
 the imam, Ismail el-Diftar, not seen, prayed for martyrs and the liberation of
Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque. (AP Photo/Egyptian Presidency)

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's state news agency says the country's president has issued a law that bans imprisoning journalists pending trial for publishing-related charges.

Islam Afifi, the chief editor of el-Dustour

newspaper, center, attends a court hearing

 in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012. 

(AP Photo/Mohammed Asad)

Thursday's decree is the first law issued by President Mohammed Morsi since he assumed legislative powers this month in the absence of a parliament, and after he sent the generals with whom he had shared powers into early retirement.

A Cairo court on Thursday had ordered the editor of the privately-owned el-Dustour daily, Islam Afifi, detained pending trial on charges that his newspaper had insulted Morsi and potentially harmed the public interest.

Following Morsi's decree, MENA reported that Afifi was ordered released from prison.

Rights groups had expressed indignation at the court's decision, saying it betrayed the values of last year's revolt against Egypt's longtime former President Hosni Mubarak.