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Egypt arrests cartoonist over anti-Sisi caricatures

February 1, 2016 at 10:33 am

Egyptian security forces yesterday arrested popular cartoonist Islam Gawish over drawings he made which criticise the President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, Huffington Post reported.

A statement published on Gawish’s Al-Waraqa Facebook page said the 26-year-old was arrested yesterday afternoon from his office. His page exceeds 1.6million likes.

According to the Egyptian media, Gawish was arrested while at work at the Egypt News Network (ENN) along with an accountant working with the website. The accountant was later released.

The Egyptian interior ministry claimed that the popular social media cartoonist was arrested for running “his own website” without the necessary licenses.