Egypt releases journalist detained over reporting on Zambia plane seizure
A reporter for a local fact-checking site is the latest Egyptian journalist to be arrested over the weekend.
An Egyptian journalist who was detained over the weekend was released late on Sunday, his employer announced in a tweet.
Karim Assad is a member of the editorial team of Matsda2sh (“Don’t Believe”), a local fact-checking platform. He was arrested by plainclothes security forces at his home in the eastern Cairo neighborhood of al-Shorouk on Saturday after his platform covered Zambia's seizure of a private plane coming from Egypt.
In a Saturday tweet, Matsda2sh said security forces raided Assad’s home, physically assaulted his wife and threatened their child before taking Assad to an unknown location.
The release came after the head of Egypt's Journalists Syndicate, Khaled el-Balshy, contacted the authorities and urged his safe return.
