NUJ denounces arrest of journalist Ahmed Serag in Egypt
Concern at spike in detention of media workers
The NUJ is backing the International Federation of Journalists in urging Egyptian authorities to release journalist Ahmed Serag.
Serag was arrested on 15 January following an interview he did in December with university professor and translator Nada Mougheeth, the wife of imprisoned cartoonist Ashraf Omar.
During the interview Mougheeth claimed that when the police arrested her husband, they took, “350,000 Egyptian pounds of personal savings” from the house, of which only about a quarter was recorded in the report, in addition to other personal belongings that “do not have any connection to the charges against him”.
She was detained the day after Serag’s arrest and released on bail. Serag, meanwhile, was detained for 15 days pending investigations and was charged with joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, using a website to promote terrorist ideas and committing a financing crime.
The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate (EJS) president Khaled El-Balshy expressed his full solidarity with Serag and demanded his immediate release, saying his interview with Mougheeth does not constitute any crime.
El-Balshy commented: “We are concerned at the spike in media workers’ arrests that reverses prior commitments to free detained journalists and open the public space for freedom of expression.”
According to EJS data, 25 journalists and media workers remain behind bars in Egypt. Of these, 16 have been held in pretrial detention for over two years, with some cases exceeding five years.
Anthony Bellanger, IFJ general secretary, said:
“We join EJS in the call for the immediate release of Ahmed Serag and all of the imprisoned journalists and urge the government to stop intimidating journalists who dare to publish critical views or reporting on the wrongdoing of public officials. We welcome the valuable efforts made by our colleagues in Egypt to shed light on the conditions of jailed journalists and work to put an end to prolonged pretrial detention. We call on the authorities to uphold press freedom and guarantee the safety of journalists.”
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