Egypt's Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Mohamed Mahsoub said Tuesday that a bill has been submitted to President Mohamed Morsy that would repeal Article No. 179 of the country's Penal Code, which stipulates a prison term for insulting the president.
Ousted President Hosni Mubarak had used the article to persecute a number of opposition journalists and intellectuals.
The article surfaced again when Chief Editor of the independent daily Al-Dostour, Islam Afify, was charged in a criminal court with insulting the president and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Afify was released after Morsy cancelled pretrial detention for journalists last Thursday.
Mahsoub, speaking to Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr late Tuesday, said the prison sentence will be replaced with a fine.
He added that according to the proposed bill, the country's president will be treated as an ordinary citizen in libel cases. "This is an age of freedom; rulers and their subjects should be equal, and the president does not need any rules to be protected," he said.
Earlier this week, former MP Yasser al-Qady accused the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party of blocking a bill he had prepared in April to cancel the controversial article.
Qady said the article belongs to the bygone regime and imparts a fake sanctity on the president, whom he described as merely the head of the executive authority and subject to criticism.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
