Layla Hadid
Cairo, Egypt – Ashraf Omar, a cartoonist for the independent news platform Al-Manassa, was detained by Egyptian security forces at his Cairo residence early Monday morning.
Omar’s wife, Nada Mougheeth, reported that security officers blindfolded him before taking him away in a vehicle. In addition, they seized a substantial amount of money and his computer.
“The cartoons of our colleague Ashraf Omar did not violate any law nor attack anyone, and therefore Al-Manassa considers it unacceptable that he was taken away blindfolded at dawn,”
Al-Manassa editor-in-chief, Nora Younis, wrote in a letter to Khaled El-Balshy, the chair of the Journalists Syndicate, urging intervention in the matter.
El-Balshy responded by issuing a statement condemning Omar’s arrest, demanding his immediate release, and calling on authorities to disclose his location.
He declared the union’s
“full solidarity”
with Omar, emphasizing his
“fundamental right as a journalist to express citizens’ suffering through his drawings”.
Al-Manassa also appealed to the public prosecutor, Mohamed Shawky Ayyad, to
“clarify the journalist’s situation, announce his place of detention and the charges against him, and facilitate a meeting with his lawyer.”
Omar is known for his satirical cartoons addressing Egypt’s electricity crisis, economic policies, and the sale of state assets to Gulf countries.
According to Reporters Without Borders, 18 journalists are currently imprisoned in Egypt. The media watchdog ranks Egypt 170 out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index.
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