Al-Jazeera Media Network published a press statement on the 4-year anniversary of the arrest of the journalist, Mahmoud Hussein, in Egyptian prisons without charge or trial, in violation of all international and Egyptian laws related to pretrial detention.
Colleague Hussein was arrested on December 23, 2016, after traveling to Cairo to spend his annual vacation with his family, and he was not on a work mission at the time.
The prosecution continued to renew his detention periodically without presenting him to the court, before a judicial decision was issued to release him on 23 May 2019, after he had exhausted the period of preventive detention stipulated in Egyptian law.
However, the authorities sent him back to prison pending a new case.
For his part, Dr. Mustafa Souaq, Acting Director General of the Al-Jazeera Network, said, "Colleague Mahmoud Hussein completes today 4 years in arbitrary detention, despite international demands and the continuous condemnation of his unjust detention. We condemn his continued detention and the extension of his detention, and we call on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release him."
"On the island, we stand in solidarity with all our colleagues who are unjustly detained around the world. We renew our condemnation of any intimidation, persecution or imprisonment against any journalist for performing his professional duty, because we believe that freedom of the press is a fundamental right and a central value of the values of democracy and human rights."
It is noteworthy that Hussein this month ranked second in the list of the "One Free Press" coalition, which ranks the ten most urgent cases among the violations and arrests of journalists around the world every month. The coalition includes more than 30 international media institutions, including "Washington Post, Time, Half Post, CNN" and others.
Additionally, the American Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) awarded Hussain the annual Percy Kobuza Prize, which is awarded to foreign journalists who have been exposed to risks or abuses while performing their work.
According to the annual report issued by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Egyptian authorities have increased the frequency of arrests of journalists, and have continued to extend their pre-trial detention without legal basis for an indefinite period.
The number of journalists imprisoned in this country in 2020 increased to 27.
Al-Jazeera network reiterated its appeal to all media professionals, bodies concerned with freedom of the press and human rights organizations, to stand with Hussein and other journalists imprisoned in Egypt, and to show solidarity with them by all available means.