Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has urged authorities in Egypt to comply with international law by releasing all detained journalists.

RSF made this call after the country released only two of five journalists a Cairo court had agreed to release.

The court agreed in principle on 3 November to release Sayed Abdellah and Mohamed Ibrahim, a blogger also known as Mohamed Oxygen, who have been held since September 2019, and Haitham Hasan Mahgoub, held since May 2020.

Two other journalists, Sameh Hanin and Awni Nafie, were released the same day.

The decisions came just days after 56 members of both houses of the US congress and more than 220 European parliamentarians wrote letters to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, urging him to free prisoners of conscience, including journalists, whose detention is virtually a death sentence because of the danger of catching Covid-19 in crowded prison conditions.

Some of the journalists still in prison include Mahmoud Hussein, Alaa Abdel Fattah and Hossam Al-Sayyad.

Meanwhile, new investigations have been opened against two other detained journalists, Solafa Magdy and Esraa Abdel Fattah, for offences allegedly committed while in prison.

‘These releases are so unusual as to deserve being highlighted but they are far from sufficient and the list of journalists currently in Egyptian prisons is still much too long’, Head of RSF Middle East desk, Sabrina Bennoui, said.

‘Instead of freeing journalists in ones and two and prolonging the detention of others indefinitely, the Egyptian authorities should comply with international law by agreeing to immediately release all of the arbitrarily detained journalists together’.

Source: RSF

Photo source: RSF