Egypt arrests 2 journalists in less than a week, refuses to disclose whereabouts

Washington, D.C., July 23, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Egyptian authorities to immediately release Ashraf Omar, a cartoonist for the independent news outlet Al-Manassa, and Khaled Mamdouh, a reporter for news website Arabic Post.

“By arresting journalists Khaled Mamdouh and Ashraf Omar and subjecting them to enforced disappearance, the Egyptian regime has once again demonstrated its shameful commitment to targeting journalists and violating their basic human rights,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “It is time to break Egypt’s longstanding pattern and release Mamdouh and Omar, dropping all charges against them.”

Egyptian security forces have systematically used enforced disappearance—characterized as a state-sponsored arrest or abduction followed by a lack of acknowledgment of the person’s fate or whereabouts—to target journalists and human rights defenders, who are often mistreated prior to being presented for charges.

Security authorities arrested Omar early Monday morning at his apartment in the October Gardens neighborhood in Giza, and took him to an unknown location.

Human rights lawyer Mahienour El-Massry told Al-Manassa that she went to the Sixth of October Police Station, but they denied his presence or arrest. Al-Manassa and the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate called on the public prosecutor to reveal Omar’s whereabouts and any charges.

Security forces arrested Mamdouh at his home in Mokattam, a southern plateau in the capital, Cairo, on Tuesday, July 16, and confiscated his laptop. Security forces took Mamdouh to an undisclosed location, where he was forcibly disappeared for five days.

Security forces presented Mamdouh to prosecuting authorities on Sunday, where he was detained for 15 days pending investigation into charges of joining and funding a terrorist organization and spreading false news.

CPJ’s email to the Egyptian Ministry of Interior requesting comment on Mamdouh and Omar’s arrest and charges did not receive an immediate response.

Separately in June and July, the Egyptian Supreme State Security Prosecution repeatedly renewed the detention of freelance reporter Yasser Abu Al-Ela, pending an investigation into charges of joining a terrorist organization, committing a financing crime, and publishing false news.

Abu Al-Ela said at a June 15 meeting with the prosecution that during the 50 days of his enforced disappearance, he was subjected to “physical and psychological torture.” His wife, Naglaa Fathi, was detained and charged after filing several complaints with Egyptian authorities after her husband disappeared.