Al Jazeera journalist detained in Berlin on Egypt request
German police have arrested an Egyptian journalist working for the Qatar-based satellite TV channel Al Jazeera on an arrest warrant issued by the Egyptian government.
Ahmed Mansour, a 52-year-old journalist with Al Jazeera’s Arabic service, was arrested on Saturday at Berlin Tegel Airport, where he intended to take a flight to Doha.
“I am still under arrest at Berlin airport, waiting to be taken before an investigating judge,” the journalist, who also has British citizenship, wrote in a message posted on his Twitter account.
According to the Qatari broadcaster, Egypt in 2014 issued a 15-year jail term for Mansour in absentia over claims that he had tortured a lawyer in Cairo’s Liberation Square in 2011. Mansour has reportedly rejected the accusations.
“The question now is how have the German government and Interpol become tools in the hands of a bloodthirsty regime in Egypt that came to power through a coup, and is led by the terrorist (President) Abdel Fattah al-Sisi,” Mansour tweeted.
Al Jazeera reported last October that Interpol had rejected a request put forward by Cairo to put out a “red notice” for Mansour’s arrest.
The network’s Acting Director General Mostefa Souag, meanwhile, has urged German authorities to immediately free the journalist.
Relations between Doha and Cairo soured after the Egyptian military ousted President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Qatar is a strong supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, to which Morsi is affiliated. The Brotherhood has been banned in Egypt.
Egyptian authorities arrested three other Al Jazeera journalists in December 2013 on charges of backing the Muslim Brotherhood.
Acting bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed are free on bail pending retrial, while Australian journalist Peter Greste, the third Al Jazeera journalist, has been deported.
MR/HSN/HJL
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