By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt-For the past eight days, three Al Jazeera journalists working for the broadcaster in the Cairo, have been detained by Egyptian police. They include the Al Jazeera’s chief of the Cairo bureau, Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, producer Baher Mohamed, and correspondent Peter Greste.
Greste is an award-winning journalist who joined Al Jazeera English after working with CNN and BBC. He won the Peabody Arad in 2-12 for his documentary on Somalia. Fahmy worked for CNN and the New York Times before joining Al Jazeera.
Egypt’s interior ministry claimed that the journalists had held illegal meetings with the Muslim Brotherhood which was declared a terrorist group this past week. Al Jazeera denies the accusations against its team and has expressed outrage at the continued detention of its journalists without charge.
“The allegations that are being made are totally false and unfounded,” claimed Al Anstey, managing director of Al-Jazeera English. Anstey also stated the reporters were operating in Cairo legally, covering a number of other topics besides protests supporting the Brotherhood, including traffic congestion and soccer games.
General Hisham Barakat, Egypt’s top prosecutor, has ordered that the journalists be held for 15 days for suspicions of spreading false news harmful to state security. Further accusations allege the journalists set up a media network aimed at “tarnishing Egypt’s image abroad and harming its political position.”
Egyptian authorities arrested the journalists in a five-star hotel in Cairo, claiming they confiscated a number of cameras, microphones, computers, gas masks, cash, and statements that include incitement of student protests.
Concern for Mohamed Fahmy’s health has caused him to be moved from the city’s Torah Prison to a hospital facility. His shoulder, which was already dislocated from a previous fall, was fractured when the journalists were transported to a Cairo police station for interrogation.
“He is in pain and sleeps on the floor in a maximum security prison which is bad for a broken shoulder,” stated Ragia Omran, a lawyer for the Cairo based Arab human Rights Institute. Both Fahmy and Greste were expected to undergo further questioning today.
Several global media freedom organizations have joined the movement for the immediate and unconditional release of the journalists. Those organizations include the Committee for Protection of Journalists, Reporters without Borders, and International News Safety Institute.
Al Jazeera’s Cairo offices have been stormed several times and a court order has barred its local affiliate from broadcasting in Egypt since September.
For more information, please see the following:
Al Jazeera-Al Jazeera team still detained in Egypt-05 January 2014
Guardian-Arrested al-Jazeera journalist’s health causing concern, says Egyptian lawyer-01 January 2014
Washington Post-Egypt: Al-Jazeera journalists’ detention renewed-31 December 2013
BBC-Egypt crisis: Al-Jazeera journalists arrested in Cairo-30 December 2013
