Hossam Bahgat, one of Egypt’s best-known advocates and founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in 2002, has been detained by the Egyptian military inside an undisclosed location as the investigative journalist faces charges for spreading “false news”.
Advertisement
He was being held on charges of publishing false information endangering national security due to a recent article he had written about the Egyptian military.
The spokesman for the UN High Commissioner For Human Rights had earlier urged Egyptian authorities “to release Mr Bahgat without delay”.
Bahgat, who speaks fluent English, is warmly embraced by Western officials and global journalists.
A leading journalist and human rights activist has been released in Egypt following his controversial arrest this weekend.
Bahgat, an investigative reporter at Mada Masr independent news website, was interrogated and detained on Sunday following a summons he received on Thursday.
But on Tuesday, Bahgat suddenly called his friends to say he was outside the military intelligence building after being released. After several hours of interrogation, he was moved to Military Prosecution. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based press freedom organization, demanded for Bahgat be released immediately.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry singled out this particular statement, with Egypt’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abou Zeid denouncing Ban’s comments and saying that they addressed individual cases and contained assumptions on freedom of expression, which is guaranteed to all Egyptians, despite the fact that the “reasons behind the investigation are related to clear and unequivocal violations of the Egyptian penal code”.
Advertisement
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi took power in 2013 in a military coup, deposing the government of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, the first democratically elected leader of Egypt. Sisi has since led a widespread purge of Brotherhood members, imprisoning and drawing up charges against senior and rank and file members, and pushing much of the movement underground.
