Shobra El-Kheima prosecution renewed the detention of Yanair Gate’s editor-in-chief Amr Badr and reporter Mahmoud Al-Saqa for 15 days on Saturday, pending investigations.
Lawyer Tarek El-Awady told Daily News Egypt that, following the renewal decision, Badr and Al-Saqa were called before the prosecution and informed of the new charges against them. However, these charges have not been disclosed at the time of print.
Badr and Al-Saqa were previously charged with calling for unlicensed protests and the assassination of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, in addition to inciting dissent against state organisations, among other charges.
The two journalists were arrested on 1 May, in an unprecedented incident in which security forces stormed the Press Syndicate to arrest them. Outraged by the action, journalists have staged protests at the syndicate’s headquarters, calling for the dismissal of the interior minister and an apology from the presidency.
Badr and Al-Saqa started a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the Press Syndicate in downtown Cairo in late April, protesting two security raids that were conducted at their private residencies at dawn. Police confiscated Badr’s laptop, camera, among other personal property during the raids.
