Arabic version: ستة صحفيين مصريين للتحقق من الحقائق يواجهون اتهامات بالإرهاب

According to BBC News, Egyptian prosecutors have charged six journalists from the independent fact-checking platform Matsda2sh with belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Their lawyer, Nabeh al-Ganadi, said the men were also accused of joining a terrorist group, funding terrorism, publishing “fake news” and using social media to call for acts of terrorism. Matsda2sh denied the allegations.

Ganadi said the State Security Prosecution remanded five of the journalists in custody for 15 days, while the sixth was still being interrogated. The six are Abdullah Qadry, Mohammed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohammed Mahmoud and Mohammed Adel.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said security personnel arrested the journalists in raids on their homes across Egypt on 28 and 29 September. Its lawyers are defending them. The group said that initially no information was provided about where they were being held or why they had been detained.

On Thursday, the interior ministry confirmed the arrests and accused Matsda2sh of trying to destabilise Egypt through disinformation. It said the platform was unlicensed, operated from abroad, and that its founder, Abdel Rahman Mansour, was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mansour told the Committee to Protect Journalists that the accusations misrepresented the platform and said it had no affiliation with the Brotherhood.

The EIPR said most of the journalists told prosecutors they were tortured at National Security Agency facilities before appearing before a judicial authority. It cited allegations of beatings, forced stripping, electric shocks and threats. The interior ministry denied torture or mistreatment, while a ministry source described the allegations as unfounded. The Committee to Protect Journalists called the detention of Matsda2sh’s entire newsroom a “grave escalation in Egypt’s campaign against independent journalism.”