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Egyptian authorities arrested a prominent journalist Monday on charges of spreading fake news, his lawyers said. Mohamed Monir, 65, was taken by plainclothes security officers from his apartment in Giza, south of Cairo.
Egypt’s national security prosecutor additionally alleged that Monir joined a terrorist group and accused him of misusing social media, his lawyer, Nabeh el-Ganadi, said.
Monir is editor-in-chief of the al-Diyar newspaper and a former deputy editor of the pro-government Al-Youm Al-Sabae, or Seventh Day newspaper, among other outlets, his lawyer said.
Over the weekend, Monir had posted surveillance footage on his Facebook page showing dozens of heavily armed police officers breaking into his home to search it when he wasn’t there. Two hours later, the plainclothes officers searched the house again.
According to his family, Monir recently had given an interview to media outlet Al-Jazeera, outlawed in Egypt, about a dispute between state-owned weekly magazine Rose al-Yusuf and the Coptic Orthodox Church.
His lawyer did not comment on any connection between Monir and Al-Jazeera, the AP reported.
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Al-Jazeera was banned from Egypt following the 2013 ousting of short-lived Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. The new government claimed the network promoted Egypt’s enemies, especially the Muslim Brotherhood group. Many of the network’s reporters also were detained at that time.
“Egyptian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Mohamed Monir and drop these baseless charges,” said Committee to Protect Journalist’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, Sherif Mansour, in a statement.
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The veteran journalist reportedly suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, and severe heart problems, CPJ reported, citing local journalists.
“Monir is already in failing health, and to detain him pending trial during a pandemic is an exceptionally cruel,” Mansour said.
In May, Egypt arrested four journalists, three of whom were charged with spreading false news.
Egypt is behind only China and Turkey as the country that jails the highest number of journalists, according to statistics compiled by the CPJ.
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Several members of the Egyptian journalists’ union called for an emergency board meeting to discuss the “siege imposed on freedom of the press.”
Board member Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafiz wrote on Facebook that “silencing everyone and spreading fear is their goal, not only for journalists, but for all those who express an opinion or different position in this country.”