Cairo, Sept. 27 (AFP): An Egyptian newspaper editor is to be tried by a security court for discussing the President’s health, a judicial source said today, the first time such a case will be heard by a court of no appeal.

The case against Al-Destur editor Ibrahim Eissa, sentenced to a year in prison in a separate trial earlier this month for publishing articles critical of the regime, is the latest in a spate of trials of Egyptian journalists.

Eissa is accused of harming the country’s economy after rumours he allegedly spread about 79-year-old President Hosni Mubarak’s health allegedly caused foreign investors to sell hundreds of millions of dollars in stocks.

Eissa faces up to three years in prison if he is convicted in the trial which is due to begin on Monday.

The clampdown on the Egyptian media led the US on Monday to voice “deep concern” at the sentencing of at least seven journalists so far this month, a criticism rejected by Cairo as “unacceptable interference”.