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Egypt shuts Iranian TV outlet

Spat follows film on Sadat assassination

By Maggie Michael | Associated Press

July 25, 2008

CAIRO — Egyptian authorities have shut down the Cairo office of an Iranian television network, a security official said Thursday, as the two nations spar over a film that justifies the killing of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by Islamic militants.

Authorities confiscated equipment and closed the office of Al-Alam TV on Monday because it was operating without a license, said the security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

The head of Al-Alam's Cairo office, Ahmed al-Sayoufi, said the network has been wrongly accused of involvement in the production of the documentary about Sadat and that the steps against it were linked to those claims.

"Assassination of a Pharaoh" has caused offense in Egypt because it portrays Sadat's killer in a positive light and the late Egyptian president as a traitor for making peace with Israel.

The film was produced by the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs, which is a body backed by hard-liners within the Iranian government but not considered government-run.

The film triggered a diplomatic protest by Egypt and could threaten recent steps to restore relations between the two countries. Tehran cut ties three decades ago, after Egypt signed the peace agreement with Israel and provided asylum for the deposed Iranian Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

In Tehran, Hasan Abedini, the head of Al-Alam's newsroom, said the state-run satellite news channel has no link with the film. Nonetheless, all the station's news activities have been banned in Egypt, he said. Satellite customers in Egypt could still see the channel's Arabic-language broadcasts.

The film aired this month at a festival in Iran along with documentaries about others whom the committee considers "martyrs."

Khaled el-Islambouli was one of the army officers who fired on Sadat during a military parade in 1981. Egypt executed him by firing squad soon thereafter.

In May, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered to restore ties with Egypt.