Egypt keeps in custody journalist and activist Ismail Alexandrani for 15 days

Egyptian State Security prosecution ordered on Tuesday the detention of Egyptian journalist and Sinai expert Ismail Alexandrani for 15 days pending an investigation into charges of “broadcasting false news.”

A judicial source told Ahram Online that Alexandrani is also charged with joining the banned Muslim Brotherhood organisation.

Alexandrani was arrested on Sunday at Hurghada Airport, with security officials reportedly telling the journalist’s friends that he was only being detained for a “chat.”

The journalist was visiting Egypt from Germany to see his sick mother.

Alexandrani, 32, is a sociopolitical researcher and investigative freelance journalist who specialises in Sinai affairs.

He published in 2015 a chapter called “Violence in Sinai: the State’s War on Society and Producing Terrorism” in a book titled “L’Egypte en revolution(s)” (Egypt in revolution[s]).

He is also a volunteer researcher responsible for Sinai issues at the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR).

Alexandrani has been a Fellow Researcher at the Paris-based Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) since 2013, where he studies “the future relationship between the progressive Islamists and the Secular Left in Egypt.”

He was a Visiting Arab Journalist Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center (February-May 2015) and won the Open Eye-Hany Darweesh Award for Exceptional Essay in Germany in 2014.

source:Ahram online