CAIRO - A daughter of Egypt's former president Gamal Abdel Nasser has been convicted of defamation for calling his successor Anwar Sadat an American agent, a judicial source said on Tuesday.
Hoda Abdel Nasser was ordered to pay 100,000 Egyptian pounds (more than 18,000 dollars) to Ruqaya al-Sadat, daughter of the Egyptian president assassinated in 1981.
She filed suit for defamation in 2005 after Hoda Abdel Nasser was reported by a weekly publication as saying that Anwar Sadat was behind the death of her father and that he worked for the American secret services.
Nasser was unable to supply proof of her claims, according to the judgment handed down on Monday, the source said.
The two late presidents continue to be the topic of impassioned debate in Egypt.
Nasser, a symbol of pan-Arabism and the fight against Israel and imperialism, was succeeded on his death in 1970 by Sadat.
Nasser's detractors say his programme of nationalisation ruined the country's economy, and Sadat was killed on October 6, 1981 after signing a treaty with Israel two years earlier.
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