London – December 24, 2016
(Ikshef) – Arab Media Freedom Monitor “Ikshef” deplores detention and hiding of journalist Mahmoud Hussein news producer of Al-Jazeera channel and his two brothers, one of them is also a media person (Omar Hussein of Egyptian Television) by the Egyptian authorities without having committed any crime punishable by law.
Ikshef confirms that the detention process comes in the context of a general climate hostile to press freedom in Egypt, and the state of being willing to attack all independent voices, as it is also a part of political conflict between the Egyptian regime and the Al-Jazeera linked to Qatar. It is a conflict paid for by Mahmoud Hussein and his two brothers who do not belong to any organizational or partisan action.
Ikshef holds Egyptian authorities full responsibility about the life and health of journalists Mahmoud and Omar Hussain, and also demands Egyptian authorities to quickly release them and not to involve them in political disputes they are not a part of.
Egyptian authorities arrested Mahmoud Hussein from Cairo airport and has detained him for 15 hours last Tuesday, before being released at the headquarters of the State Security Service in Giza for several hours. Then, he was escorted while handcuffed to his house, and taken to an unknown destination, as well as a raid on the home of his two brothers as well detaining them.
