Release of an Egyptian journalist who was detained while traveling to Ras El Hekma

The Mada Masr news website announced on Monday that the Egyptian authorities released the journalist who works for it, Rana Mamdouh, after arresting her on her way to the Ras al-Hikma area in the northwest of the country, and detaining her for several hours.

The website wrote in a statement: “The Supreme State Security Prosecution in Cairo released Mada Masr journalist, our colleague Rana Mamdouh, on bail of 5,000 pounds.”

The website added that “there is no information, so far, about the charges against her.”

The journalist’s husband, Muhammad Al-Khouli, posted on his Facebook account a photo of him with her after his release, and wrote: “We ran with me after more than 12 hours of detention.”

Rana came back with us after more than 12 hours of detention. Thank you to everyone who supported us

Posted by Mohamed El-kholy on Sunday, March 10, 2024

Egyptian security forces arrested the journalist on Sunday morning while she was on her way to the coastal area of ​​Ras El Hekma on the Mediterranean Sea, which was the focus of a major deal worth tens of billions of dollars between Cairo and Abu Dhabi last month.

The Mada Masr website reported that “police forces detained journalist Rana Mamdouh, on Sunday morning, at the El Alamein Police Department, after stopping her while she was heading to the city of Ras al-Hikma on a work mission.”

She added, “A police ambush at the El Alamein toll station stopped the car that was carrying Mamdouh, asked her about the reasons for her going there, and kept her there for about an hour, claiming that she had conducted a press interview without a permit, before taking her to the El Alamein police station, where contact with her and the car driver had been cut off since “They reach it.”

In late February, Egypt announced a deal with ADQ Holding, one of the UAE’s sovereign wealth funds, that would bring the country $35 billion over two months, including $11 billion transferred from existing deposits.

Under the deal, the UAE sovereign fund gets the right to develop 170 million square meters of the best beaches on the North Coast in Ras El Hekma.

Mamdouh was previously detained in late 2019 along with two Mada Masr journalists, including editor-in-chief Lina Atallah, after storming the institution’s office, a day after the arrest of its news editor. The authorities then released everyone hours later.

In December 2018, Mamdouh submitted an official memorandum to the president of the Syndicate of Journalists and members of the Journalists Syndicate Council, regarding a series of violations she was subjected to at the time, which included the confiscation of her passport by National Security officers at Cairo Airport during her return from an investigative journalism conference in Jordan.

She was also interrogated, the contents of her bags were searched, and her diaries were confiscated, before she was asked to go to the agency’s main headquarters under the pretext of collecting her passport. These measures were described at the time by Mada Masr’s lawyer and members of the Journalists Syndicate Council as “violating the law and the constitution.”

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