Egypt: Kidnapped a month ago by security forces, journalist Khaled Mamdouh must be released
Journalist Khaled Mamdouh was taken in custody on July 21, accused of belonging to a terrorist group and spreading false information. He had been abducted from his home on 16 July. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for his immediate release and for the unfounded charges against him to be dropped.
Four days elapsed between the abduction by security forces of Khaled Mamdouh from his home in Cairo, where he was staying with his family on 16 July, and the official date of his arrest on 20 July. This method of forcibly disappearing detainees is part of the arsenal of repression that State Security, the agency of the Ministry of the Interior, uses regularly against journalists and critical voices.
The following day, 21 July, the State Security Prosecutor, an anti-terrorist office that spearheads the incarceration of dissidents and critics in Egypt, placed the Arabic Post reporter in custody for 15 days. It accused him, without providing any evidence, of financing and belonging to a terrorist group, as well as disseminating false information.
That preventive detention has since been renewed for a further two weeks on July 29 and then on August 12. With no date set for a hearing and no case file provided to the journalist's defense, his pre-trial detention is likely to be extended again before the end of the month.
Khaled Mamdouh disappeared for four days in the hands of security forces, only to reappear before an anti-terrorist judge who directed false charges at him, with no basis whatsoever. He was then placed in pre-trial detention, the duration of which has already been renewed twice. Egyptian authorities systematically use this method of imprisonment without trial against journalists critical of President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi's regime, and this repression must stop. Khaled Mamdouh must be released immediately and acquitted of the charges. Egypt's foreign partners must put pressure on the authorities so that journalists can work freely in the country.
Khaled Mamdouh, 55, is a veteran journalist who has worked for the Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) for almost 18 years. Since the start of his career, he has covered a wide variety of subjects from geopolitics to sports news, according to RSF’s information. He has also worked as a presenter for the Egyptian public radio station and for various other media, including the online news site Arabic Post.
Six of the 16 other media professionals currently imprisoned in Egypt also disappeared for several days before reappearing behind bars. Before Khaled Mamdouh, the most recent was cartoonist Ashraf Omar, arrested at his home on the night of July 21-22. Following the same procedure used against Khaled Mamdouh, he then appeared before the State Security Prosecutor, accused of disseminating false information, and was placed in custody for a 15 days, already renewed on August 5.
Kept behind bars without trial
Renewed periods of pre-trial detention allow Egyptian judges to keep journalists behind bars without trial. Normally limited to two years, these temporary incarcerations sometimes exceed the legal time limit, as in the case of journalist Tawfik Ghanem, former editor-in-chief of the news website Islam Online and local bureau chief of the Turkish news agency Anadolu from 2013 to 2015, who has been imprisoned without trial for over three years.
At least nine of the 17 journalists incarcerated in Egypt are in pre-trial detention. Egypt is ranked 170th out of 180 countriesin the RSF World Press Freedom Index 2024, and represents one of the harshest regimes against the media and journalists.
