Developing: Six Matsadaash journalists held on terrorism charges, colleagues allege torture
The arrests put the independent fact-checking platform's entire newsroom in custody. Colleagues say the journalists reported torture and forced confessions, allegations Egypt's Interior Ministry denies.
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Oct 9, 06:00 UTC ·
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Egyptian journalists are planning a Cairo protest this weekend over six colleagues held on terrorism-related charges, after arrests put an independent investigative and fact-checking platform's entire newsroom in custody. [1][3]
The six work for Matsadaash, an Egyptian outlet founded in 2018. They are Abdallah Qadry, Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Mohamed Adel, Islam Barakat, Mohamed Mahmoud and Omar Helal. Security forces arrested them between September 28 and September 29, 2026. [2][3][4]
The protest will oppose the detentions and alleged mistreatment in custody. Hadeer El-Mahdawy, a member of the organising committee, said its purpose was to reject what was happening, defend their colleagues and protect what remained of the journalism profession. Her account casts the protest as a defence of journalists' ability to keep working as well as solidarity with the detainees. [1]
Egypt's Interior Ministry accuses Matsadaash of operating without a licence, producing false news for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and forming part of the group's media apparatus. The outlet denies that connection. Those accusations are the ministry's account of the case, not established findings. [1][2][3]
"We have no affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, and the authorities know this," Matsadaash founder Abdelrahman Mansour said to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a press-freedom organisation. [2]
Allegations of abuse and an official denial
The detained journalists told lawyers that they had been tortured and forced to record false confessions, according to Lobna Darwish of the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate. Darwish's account includes allegations that they were kept blindfolded and handcuffed for days, beaten, forcibly stripped, subjected to electric shocks and threatened with harm to family members. [1]
Darwish also said detainees were made to read prepared statements for filmed confessions, repeating the recordings in multiple takes. According to that account, the statements were scripted and the journalists were forced to record words they said were false. [1]
The Interior Ministry denied torture and ill-treatment, describing the allegations as baseless and an attempt by detainees to evade the accusations against them. Police also denied the allegations. [1]
Egypt's public prosecution said three journalists who reported ill-treatment underwent forensic examinations that found no injuries or signs of violence. The alleged abuse remains disputed and unproven. The prosecution's statement concerns three of the six detainees and does not establish what happened to all six in custody. [1]
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a rights organisation, is providing legal representation to the journalists, according to Reuters. [3]
The dispute over the filmed statements sits alongside the criminal case. The ministry says the outlet worked for an outlawed organisation, while the journalists' account to lawyers challenges how their alleged confessions were obtained. Both the outlet's alleged affiliation and the reported coercion are contested. [1][2][3]
Arrests at homes and on the streets
According to CPJ, two journalists were detained at their homes in Cairo, two at their homes in Gharbiya and Port Said, and two on Cairo streets. The arrests reached the whole newsroom across several locations. [2][3]
Civil-society organisations and media groups that issued a joint statement condemning the arrests said officers raided homes, seized electronic devices and did not disclose where the journalists were being taken. The signatories called for the entire newsroom's release. [4]
At the time of CPJ's October 2 alert, the organisation said the journalists' whereabouts were unknown and they had been unable to contact their families or lawyers. They subsequently made the allegations of abuse to lawyers, according to Darwish's account. [1][2]
One journalist was charged on Sunday and the other five late on Wednesday, according to the Guardian's October 9 account. The charges are terrorism-related, but the precise charge against each man has not been specified in the information reported so far. [1]
The ministry's accusation links the outlet to an organisation Egypt designated a terrorist group in 2013, the year the army overthrew President Mohamed Mursi. That designation is the background to the authorities' allegation that Matsadaash operated as part of the Brotherhood's media apparatus. [2][3]
Matsadaash has pointed to its own work in rejecting the accusation. The platform said it had published corrections to misinformation from media outlets it described as affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Its response disputes the alleged connection by citing reporting that challenged those outlets. [3]
The arrests also follow an earlier encounter with the authorities. In 2023, a Matsadaash colleague was arrested and released within 48 hours, according to Mansour and the joint civil-society statement. [2][4]
That earlier arrest involved one colleague. This case has taken all six newsroom members into custody, with terrorism-related charges now facing the journalists. [1][2][4]
A profession under pressure
The planned demonstration comes amid broader pressure on independent media and a journalism profession marked by poor pay and insecure employment. Those conditions form the backdrop to El-Mahdawy's effort to rally journalists around the detained newsroom. [1]
The civil-society organisations and media outlets behind the joint statement have explicitly called for the six journalists' release. Their intervention adds a public demand to the legal representation being provided by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. [3][4]
No precise time, venue or formal list of demands for the Cairo protest has been announced so far. The organisers' next public step is the planned demonstration this weekend. [1]
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- Egyptian journalists plan weekend protest over detention of six colleagues | Global development | The Guardian The Guardian
- Egypt detains entire newsroom of Matsadaash media platform - Committee to Protect Journalists cpj.org
- Egyptian police arrest entire newsroom over alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties | The Jerusalem Post jpost.com
- Global Call for the Release of Entire Newsroom at Egyptian Investigative Journalism Platform Matsadaash - Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression afteegypt.org