CAIRO: The Cairo bureau chief of Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera was detained for a day and questioned on Thursday by Egyptian state security prosecutors. Hussein Abdel Ghani was arrested on Wednesday in the Red Sea resort of Dahab and accused of broadcasting false information liable to harm Egypt s reputation, the TV station said. He was released on bail of LE 10,000 late on Thursday. Speaking on Al-Jazeera after his release, Abdel Ghani said the prosecutors who had questioned him had acted professionally and honestly. He thanked the hundreds of Egyptians, including parliamentarians and journalists, he said had supported him. He added that the reports he had sent from Dahab had been similar in content to that published by the Egyptian and foreign media. Abdel Ghani recounted earlier that he had been almost kidnapped and spirited away to the capital while he was in Dahab, covering the aftermath of Monday s suicide bombings that killed at least 24 people. Al-Jazeera is the most widely watched pan-Arab news channel and has not shied away from broadcasting topics that are sensitive in Egypt. On Wednesday it reported that policemen had been the target of an attack in the town of Belbeis, northeast of Cairo. Other media said a police station had been fired on, quoting witnesses and security sources, but the interior ministry later issued a denial, which Al-Jazeera also carried. The Qatar-based channel also aired a political show on Wednesday evening which was critical of the government s treatment of two judges who went before a disciplinary board on Thursday for accusing the judiciary of helping to rig parliamentary elections. Al-Jazeera has given air time to reformist Egyptian judges who have criticized the government and are demanding more independence from the executive. Al-Jazeera has also aired a program on revolutionary poets such as left-wing author Ahmed Fuad Najm, whose works are sometimes used a rallying for movements opposed to the Egyptian regime. Five other Egyptian journalists have been detained since Wednesday in connection with demonstrations of support for the two judges facing disciplinary action. The journalists union complained that the arrests were against the law and rights groups have condemned Abdel Ghani s detention. We consider the arrest of the head of the Al-Jazeera bureau to be an attack on press freedom in Egypt, renowned columnist Gamal Fahmy told AFP. For years the journalists union has been demanding the abolition of laws restricting press freedom, including the legislation under which Mr. Abdel Ghani faces prosecution. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights demanded the journalist s immediate release, saying it showed the extent of the deterioration of the conditions of freedom of opinion and expression. The Arab Committee for the Defense of Journalists issued a similar call, saying the manner in which Abdel Ghani was kidnapped is violation of basic human rights principles. AFP
BREAKING NEWS: Al-Jazeera bureau chief released on bail
