Al-Dostour newspaper said Tuesday their arrested journalist Hussien Abdel Halim was recommended by the Ministry of Interior to work as the reporter responsible for the security file.
The newspaper argued that the police interfered to have Abdel Halim as a trainee journalist specialising in news related to the Ministry of Interior.
The ministry denied having any intervention in choosing reporters.
On its front page, the newspaper continued its attack on the police apparatus, condemning the arrest of its journalist, describing the arrest as “the return of the police state”. It added that at the beginning of the week, “heavy armed police forces attacked the headquarters of the newspapers and detained Abdel Halim”.
This is the first official response to the arrests by the newspaper. Al-Dostour, commonly known to have pro-government inclinations, expressed heavy criticism of the police last week, where Abdel Halim supervised the content.
A source close to Abdel Halim, who requested anonymity, told Daily News Egypt that the newspaper’s administration was pressured by the staff to publish an official condemnation.
On Sunday, the police said that the journalist had been charged over a range of criminal offences from drug and weapons possession to theft, to forgery and bribery.
On the front page of its 14 April issue, the newspaper vowed to continue “publish violations by the interior ministry to show them to the country’s president and the General Prosecutor”.
