Egypt arrests Al-Jazeera chief

2006-04-27 18:34

Cairo - The Egypt bureau chief of the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera was questioned by a state security prosecutor on Thursday, after his arrest in the Red Sea resort of Dahab.

According to Al-Jazeera, Hussein Abdel Ghani was accused of broadcasting false information liable to harm Egypt's reputation.

Fellow journalists and rights groups have condemned the arrest as an attack on the freedom of the press.

The correspondent told his channel he was "almost kidnapped" and spirited away to the capital while he was in Dahab. He was covering the aftermath of Monday's suicide bombings that killed 18 people.

Al-Jazeera had reported that an attack had targeted policemen in the town of Belbeis, to the north east of Cairo.

Other Egyptian media said a police station had been fired on, quoting witnesses and security sources. The country's interior ministry later issued a denial, which Al-Jazeera also carried.

Gives air time to revolutionary poets

On Wednesday, the Qatar-based channel aired a political show critical of the Egyptian government's treatment of two judges, who went before a disciplinary board for accusing the judiciary of helping to rig parliamentary elections.

Al-Jazeera - the most widely watched pan-Arab news channel - has given air time to reformist Egyptian judges who have criticised the regime and are demanding more independence from the executive.

It has also aired a programme on revolutionary poets, such as leftist author Ahmed Fuad Najm, whose works are sometimes used in movements opposed to the current Egyptian government.

Five other Egyptian journalists have been detained over the past 24 hours, in connection with demonstrations of support for the two judges facing disciplinary action.

The journalists' syndicate said the arrests were against the law, and rights groups have condemned Abdel Ghani's detention.

Egyptian columnist Gamal Fahmy said: "We consider the arrest of the head of the Al-Jazeera bureau to be an attack on press freedom in Egypt. Calls for immediate release

"For years the journalists' union has been demanding the abolition of laws restricting press freedom, including the legislation under which Mr Abdel Ghani faces prosecution."

The Egyptian organisation for human rights demanded the journalist's immediate release.

It said the arrest showed the extent of the "deterioration of the conditions of freedom of opinion and expression" in Egypt.

The Arab committee for the defence of journalists issued a similar call.

It said the manner in which Abdel Ghani was "kidnapped is violation of basic human rights principles".

- AFP