Egyptian journalist detained 15 days as five colleagues remain missing, rights group protests

The Supreme State Security Prosecution issued a 15-day detention order for journalist Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emaira, who was presented to judges Saturday night after five days of confinement at the National Security Agency. Prosecutors charged him with joining a terrorist group, publishing false news and using social media for those ends, and interrogated him for more than ten hours about Matsda2sh’s reporting decisions. His lawyer Islam Salama and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights reported that the Interior Ministry prevented Abu Emaira from contacting his family or counsel, violating the counter-terrorism law.

EIPR requested medical access for his chronic illnesses and called for all charges to be dropped, calling the arrests an assault on press freedom. The other five Matsda2sh journalists—Abdallah Qadry, Islam Barakat, Mohamed Adel, Mohamed Mahmoud and Omar Helal—were seized in a rapid campaign, and their current locations remain unknown. The Interior Ministry had earlier labeled the platform a “Muslim Brotherhood cell,” a claim the prosecution later denied.