The Interior Ministry ordered an investigation on Saturday into the alleged break-in on the apartment of journalist Ahmed Fares, who works for privately owned Albawabah news.
Fares, a foreign affairs reporter at Albawabah and a member of the Press Syndicate, attempted to file a police report in Dar El-Salam police station last Monday, the day of the attack. He accused security forces of breaking into his apartment in his absence, as well as the apartment of his uncle next door, and stealing EGP 18,000.
However, the police station refused to file the report for him and threatened him to report anything on what occurred in his apartment. Fares then went to the prosecution office in Dar El-Salam, which filed the report for him on Tuesday.
Press Syndicate Head Yahia Qallash sent a memorandum to the Interior Ministry earlier that day, requesting an investigation into the “unjustified” incident, and to provide details on it, according to an official Press Syndicate statement.
The Arab Network for Human Rights and Information (ANHRI) condemned the police forces’ attack on Fares’ apartment and vandalising it.
“This is part of an ongoing hostile practice by security forces against citizens’ rights and press freedom in particular,” ANHRI said in an official statement.
The number of detained journalists in Egypt is currently the highest on record since 1990, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced on 25 June, after it released its new census of imprisoned journalists in Egypt.
Journalist Abu Bakr Khallaf was reportedly arrested on 21 July at the headquarters of Egypt’s Syndicate Union, and was sent to Qasr Al-Nil police station for interrogation. He faces charges of belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Journalist Mohamed El-Battawy is being held in Tora Prison, a National Security officer told state-run news agency MENA on 22 June.
In April, the Interior Ministry announced Sunday in a statement that it ordered the arrest of a reporter at Al-Dostour newspaper.
