Egypt’s press union chief rejects pressure over detained journalists

Six journalists from independent platform Matsadaash allege torture in detention, which Egypt denies.

Egyptian security forces stand guard outside a court in Cairo [File: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters]

The head of Egypt’s Journalists Syndicate has insisted the organisation will continue to fight for press freedom after it came under fire for defending six journalists who were detained last month and charged with joining a “terrorist” group.

“What happens to one colleague affects us all, and may happen to others tomorrow,” Khaled Elbalshy said in a statement on Sunday. “An infringement of one journalist’s freedom is an infringement of everyone’s freedom and a weakening of the safeguards protecting that freedom.”

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His comments came after the syndicate filed a complaint with Egypt’s public prosecutor over allegations that the detained journalists, who work for the investigative website Matsadaash, had been tortured. Egyptian authorities denied the accusations, while pro-government commentators criticised the organisation for defending the journalists.

Mohamed Adel, Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud and Abdallah Qadry were arrested on September 28 and 29 and have since appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which prosecutes national security cases. They have been ordered to be held in pretrial detention for 15 days pending investigations.

Egyptian prosecutors have accused the six journalists of working for a media organisation tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group Egyptian authorities have cracked down on for years following a 2013 coup against democratically elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who was a member. Egypt has officially designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a “terrorist” group, an allegation the organisation has strongly denied, while human rights groups have accused Egyptian authorities of repressing freedoms.

Matsadaash co-founder Abdelrahman Mansour has also rejected any links between the media platform and the Muslim Brotherhood.

In his statement, Elbalshy said: “The fundamental principle governing all such matters, particularly when dealing with accused persons in general and vulnerable people in particular, remains that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty.”

Allegations of torture

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), whose lawyers are representing the six journalists, said they were initially held for five days without any contact with their families or lawyers. After complaints, the journalists appeared before prosecutors and were questioned in the presence of their lawyers and a representative from the Journalists Syndicate.

The EIPR said the journalists were being held under Egypt’s 2015 Counterterrorism Law that allows for suspects to be held in custody before appearing before prosecutors “when there is a risk of a terrorist crime and a necessity to confront that risk”. The rights group, however, noted that the prosecution only alleges that the journalists published rumours or “false” reports.

“The public prosecution should have identified the imminent terrorist threat that required denying them their right to appear before a judicial authority within 24 hours of their arrest,” the EIPR said on October 7.

The EIPR has also said that most of the six journalists said they were tortured following their arrests, including being beaten and subjected to electric shocks. It added that several of the detained had been forced to record fabricated confessions.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry has rejected the allegations.

Matsadaash was founded in 2018 as a fact-checking platform, but has since expanded into investigative journalism. Its website is blocked in Egypt, but it has more than 1.3 million followers on Facebook.

The outlet has previously faced pressure from Egyptian authorities, including in 2023, when one of its journalists, Karim Asaad, was arrested after Matsadaash published an investigation into a suspected smuggling scandal involving a plane that had flown from Cairo to Zambia. He was later released.

来自独立平台Matsadaash的六名记者声称在拘留期间遭受酷刑，但埃及否认了这一指控。

埃及安全部队在开罗一家法院外站岗。[图片：Mohamed Abd El Ghany/路透社]

埃及记者协会主席坚称，该组织将继续为新闻自由而战。此前，该协会因捍卫上个月被拘留并被指控加入“恐怖组织”的六名记者而受到抨击。

“一位同事的遭遇会影响到我们所有人，而且明天可能就会发生在其他人身上，”哈立德·埃尔巴尔希周日在一份声明中说。“侵犯一位记者的自由就是侵犯所有人的自由，也是削弱保护这种自由的保障措施。”

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此前，记者协会就被拘留记者（他们为调查网站Matsadaash工作）遭受酷刑的指控向埃及检察机关提起诉讼。埃及当局否认了这些指控，而亲政府评论员则批评该组织为记者辩护。

穆罕默德·阿德尔、穆罕默德·阿什拉夫·阿布·埃梅拉、伊斯兰·巴拉卡特、奥马尔·赫拉尔、穆罕默德·马哈茂德和阿卜杜拉·卡德里于9月28日和29日被捕，此后已在负责国家安全案件的最高国家安全检察院出庭受审。他们被下令在调查期间进行15天的审前拘留。

埃及检方指控这六名记者为一家与穆斯林兄弟会有关联的媒体机构工作。自2013年推翻民选总统穆罕默德·穆尔西（穆尔西是穆斯林兄弟会成员）的政变以来，埃及当局多年来一直对穆斯林兄弟会进行打压。埃及已正式将穆斯林兄弟会列为“恐怖组织”，但该组织强烈否认这一指控。与此同时，人权组织指责埃及当局压制人权自由。

Matsadaash 联合创始人 Abdelrahman Mansour 也否认了该媒体平台与穆斯林兄弟会之间存在任何联系。

埃尔巴尔什在声明中表示：“所有此类事件的基本原则，尤其是在处理被告人（特别是弱势群体）时，仍然是被告人在被证明有罪之前是无罪的。”

酷刑指控

代表这六名记者的埃及个人权利倡议组织（EIPR）表示，他们最初被拘留了五天，期间无法与家人或律师联系。在提出投诉后，这些记者被带到检察官面前，并在律师和记者协会代表的陪同下接受了讯问。

埃及人权与公共关系组织（EIPR）表示，这些记者是依据埃及2015年《反恐法》被拘留的。该法允许在“存在恐怖主义犯罪风险且有必要应对该风险”的情况下，将嫌疑人在出庭受审前拘留。然而，该人权组织指出，检方仅指控这些记者散布谣言或“虚假”报道。

“检方本应在逮捕后 24 小时内就认定存在迫在眉睫的恐怖主义威胁，从而剥夺他们出庭受审的权利，”EIPR 在 10 月 7 日表示。

欧洲新闻与公共关系组织（EIPR）还表示，六名记者中的大多数人称，他们在被捕后遭受酷刑，包括殴打和电击。该组织补充说，一些被拘留者被迫录制了捏造的供词。

埃及内政部否认了这些指控。

Matsadaash成立于2018年，最初是一个事实核查平台，但后来扩展到调查性新闻领域。其网站在埃及被屏蔽，但在Facebook上拥有超过130万粉丝。

该媒体此前曾面临埃及当局的压力，包括2023年，其记者卡里姆·阿萨德(Karim Asaad)在Matsadaash发表了一篇关于一架从开罗飞往赞比亚的飞机涉嫌走私丑闻的调查报道后被捕。他后来获释。