Egypt: New arrests of journalists, Washington and Berlin demand Cairo to respect press freedom

Egyptian security forces arrested three journalists Tuesday evening, and the State Security Prosecution issued a decision to imprison journalists for 15 days. In contrast, the United States and Germany called on the Egyptian government to respect press freedom.

The lawyer and former presidential candidate Khaled Ali revealed that journalist Sulafa Magdy, her husband Husam El-Sayyad and journalist Mohamed Salah were arrested while sitting in a café in the Dokki district of Cairo.

Khaled Ali confirmed in his blog post on the Facebook page that the security force also arrested three workers in the cafe and closed and left, without specifying any security or judicial body will investigate them.

The detained journalists are reportedly close to journalist Esraa Abdel Fattah, who was arrested by Egyptian authorities on 12 October on charges of joining a banned group, spreading false news and abusing social media.

Media reports quoted lawyer and human rights activist Jamal Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights, as saying that the three journalists entered the Dokki section for questioning, as happened with the journalists of "Mada Misr", pointing out that the security authorities deny the presence of the three journalists inside the police station.

Eid added that security forces had arrested three cafe workers, but they were released upon arrival at the Dokki section.

The arrests come days after security forces in civilian uniforms stormed the Mada Masr news site, and the editor-in-chief of the website, Lina Atallah, as well as journalists at the site, Mohamed Hamama and Rana Mamdouh, were released hours later.

The website "Mada Masr" has revealed a few days ago that the president made a decision to remove his eldest son from the political scene by assigning him a long working mission to the mission in Russia, which sparked controversy in the internal media arena.

Kabbani and poet
In a related context, journalists Hassan al-Qabbani and Mohammed al-Shaer appeared in the Supreme State Security Prosecution after 72 days of enforced disappearance, before the prosecution issued a decision to imprison them for 15 days on charges of spreading false news.

The security forces arrested al-Shaer and al-Qabbani on September 15, and all information about their whereabouts was cut until Tuesday noon.

Al-Qabbani's arrest came three months after the arrest of his wife, journalist Aya Alaa, accused of spreading false news on the back of her husband's defense during his detention.

Hussein's twin brother, Hassan al-Qabbani, said: "Lawyers told him that his brother appeared in the Supreme State Security Prosecution after a security detention for no reason for about 80 days.

International criticism
For his part, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday evening the Egyptian government to respect freedom of the press.

"As part of our long-standing strategic partnership with Egypt, we continue to raise the fundamental importance of respect for human rights and public freedoms and the need for a strong civil society," Pompeo told a news conference broadcast by US media.

Germany also expressed concern about what it said was a continuing worsening of press freedom in Egypt after security forces raided the Mada Misr website and arrested journalists.

The official page of the German embassy in Cairo on Twitter made statements to a German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman at a press conference in Berlin on Monday, saying that "the Egyptian authorities' treatment of Egyptian and foreign media representatives took place for no apparent reason, and for no apparent reason a page was blocked." Mada Misr "online and blocked about 500 other websites in Egypt."

In our view, a free and pluralistic press is of paramount importance to the health and well-being of societies.