Cairo: Three leading figures in Egypt’s journalists’ union will stand trial for allegedly harbouring fugitive colleagues, a lawyer and prosecution officials said, amid condemnation from rights groups.
The case follows an unprecedented raid on the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate on May 1 by police who arrested two reporters working on an opposition website holding a sit-in inside.
The Union’s chief, Yahiya Kallash, its secretary general Jamal Abdul Rahim and freedoms committee head, Khaled Al Balshy, have been charged with aiding wanted fugitives, Al Balshy’s lawyer said on Tuesday.
The three, who were released late on Monday after more than 24 hours in detention, are also under investigation for “publishing false news,” Karim Abdelrady said.
The first trial hearing is scheduled for Saturday, according to the lawyer and prosecution officials who requested anonymity.
“The message is that no one is too big to be detained, nor too big to be silenced,” Abdul Radi said.
Amnesty International denounced the arrests of leading union figures as “the most brazen attack on the media the country witnessed in decades.”
The two detained reporters for opposition website Babawet Yanayer — Amr Badr and Mahmoud Al Sakka — are accused of incitement to protest in violation of the law.
Union chief Kallash had denounced their arrests, telling a news conference earlier this month that the government was “escalating the war against journalism and journalists”.
