Egypt detains Al Jazeera journalists for 15 days
By Nehal El-Sherif, dpa
31.12.2013
Cairo (dpa) - Egypt’s general prosecutor detained four journalists working for Al Jazeera network for 15 days pending investigations on charges of broadcasting news that allegedly damaged the country’s reputation.
Correspondent Peter Greste, an Australian national, producers Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, as well as cameraman Mohamed Fawzy were arrested on Sunday. Fahmy, the English-language bureau chief for Al Jazeera in Egypt, is a Canadian-Egyptian.
They are accused of forming a “media network" led by a member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, local media reported.
Prosecutors said the journalists were based in a Cairo hotel, and that they fabricated broadcast news to harm Egypt’s reputation abroad.
Thousands of ousted president Mohammed Morsi's supporters are facing charges of violence and rioting. They were detained after the army toppled the country's first democratically elected president on July 3, following mass protests demanding his overthrow.
On Tuesday, security forces also arrested Morsi's presidential spokesman Yasser Ali, who was hiding in an apartment in Cairo.
Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood has organized almost daily protests since then, which have sometimes turned into deadly clashes with their opponents or security forces.
Al Jazeera has been criticized by many observers for its pro-Morsi reporting. Relations between Egypt and Qatar, the only Gulf backer of the Brotherhood, have deteriorated since Morsi's ouster.
The government's State Information Service said in a statement that it is not targeting foreign journalists in Egypt and that the arrested journalists were not registered to work in the country.
The broadcaster said Fahmy was moved to Tora prison in south Cairo while Greste remains in custody at the police station.
Al Jazeera's spokesperson said: "We condemn the arbitrary arrest of Al Jazeera English journalists working in Cairo and demand their immediate and unconditional release.
"Al Jazeera Media Network has been subject to harassment by Egyptian security forces which has arrested our colleagues, confiscated our equipment and raided our offices despite that we are not officially banned from working there."
Police raided Al Jazeera offices in Cairo after the army overthrew Morsi in July. Some of its reporters have been in detention since August.
Egypt's military-backed government last week declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, after a suicide car bombing targeted a police headquarters in the northern city of Mansoura and killed 16 people.
