Egypt is facing international condemnation for a serious attack on press freedoms after a military prosecutor charged one of the country’s foremost investigative journalists with distributing false information.
Hossam Bahgat – a contributor to the independent news website Mada Masr and founder of human rights group the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) – was arrested on Sunday. Mada Masr said the 37-year-old had been charged with “publishing false news that harms national interests and disseminating information that disturbs public peace”. He is to be held for four days.
News of the arrest came just days after protests during the visit to London by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who has overseen the widespread curtailing of the Egyptian press since former president Mohamed Morsi was overthrown in 2013.Objections to Sisi’s red-carpet reception focused on mass killings, the imprisonment of Muslim Brotherhood supporters and human rights abuses.
Negad al-Borai, a lawyer requested by Bahgat, said the arrest was related to an article he wrote in October about the trial of military officers accused of a coup attempt. His detention order can be renewed indefinitely and more charges can be issued. Mahmoud Abou Zeid, another journalist, has been in pre-trial detention for over two years.
“It is unknown where Bahgat is currently being detained or where his four-day detention will be, and … his family is trying to find out to deliver his medications,” lawyer Hassan El-Azhary told Ahram Online on Monday morning.
Bahgat received a summons at his home in Alexandria on Thursday. He arrived at military intelligence headquarters on Sunday morning. In accordance with standard procedure, he was not allowed to enter with his phone, or be accompanied by a lawyer.
In another development, Egyptian media reported the arrest on Sunday of businessman Salah Diab, the founder of al-Masry al-Youm newspaper, and his son, two days after prosecutors froze their assets along with other co-founders. Al-Ahram cited an anonymous security source as saying they were facing corruption charges.
Bahgat’s arrest has echoes of the case of three al-Jazeera journalists who were tried for helping a banned terrorist organisation. They were eventually given a presidential pardon and released in a case that focused international attention on Sisi’s crackdown.
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