Egypt renews pretrial detention of Al Jazeera journalist

Egypt’s state prosecution yesterday renewed the pretrial detention of Al Jazeera Mubasher journalist Rabie El-Sheikh for additional 15 days pending investigations.

El-Sheikh was arrested in August upon his arrival to Cairo airport to visit his family after three years abroad. He has been in detention since.

Last month, Al Jazeera called on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release four of its journalists, including Al-Sheikh.

Earlier this year, a UN rights expert condemned Egypt for targeting journalists, human rights defenders and their families, and called on authorities to stop silencing dissent and shrinking civic space in the country.

Egypt has embarked on a brutal crackdown on dissent since President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi came to power in 2014, jailing more than 60,000 critics and imposing strict censorship measures on public discourse.

Al-Sisi has consistently denied that there are political prisoners in Egypt, framing the crackdown as part of a fight against terrorism.

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