Researcher Ismail al-Iskandrani detained again over Facebook posts

The Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered on Wednesday the detention of researcher and journalist Ismail al-Iskandrani for 15 days on false news and terror charges following his arrest at a checkpoint in Matrouh.

The researcher was imprisoned for seven years on similar charges before his release in December 2022.

Iskandrani was detained after investigators questioned him about the content of his Facebook posts, lawyer Khaled Ali said. 

Ali said that he was arrested by security forces at a checkpoint in the coastal governorate of Matrouh in the early hours of Wednesday while returning to Cairo from Siwa. 

The researcher’s last post on Facebook was published at 2:30 am on Wednesday, saying,  “they stopped me at a checkpoint in Matrouh.”

Friends and colleagues said that Iskandrani’s phone was switched off after the post was published. 

His whereabouts were unknown until he appeared at the State Security Prosecution office in New Cairo, when he requested his lawyers attend the investigation session. 

Iskandrani told the investigators that his defense team consists of Ali and lawyers Mahienour al-Masry, Asmaa Naeem and Mohamed Ramadan. 

Masry and Naeem were able to attend the questioning, Ali said, and the lawyers learned that his arrest was based on a warrant issued by the state security prosecution based on investigations by the National Security Agency. 

The lawyer explained that prosecutors questioned Iskandrani about 18 posts on his Facebook profile, which the researcher acknowledged writing and stressed they express his own opinions and ideas and do not contain rumors or false news. He also emphasized that he does not belong to any political party, group or organization.

Prosecutors nevertheless detained the researcher for 15 days in Case 6469/2025 on charges of spreading false news, joining a terror group and using a website to promote ideas linked to terrorist acts, Masry said.

The defense team warned that Iskandrani requires medical care as he suffers from shortness of breath and cannot sleep without a respirator. Although the respirator was brought to the prosecution office, his mask was left in the possession of NSA personnel, according to the lawyers.

Iskandrani was previously imprisoned for seven years, after authorities at Hurghada Airport arrested him upon his return from a conference in Berlin in November 2015. The researcher faced similar false news and terror charges at the time — often leveled against people for political reasons.

Iskandarani denied the charges at the time. His writings prior to the arrest included journalistic contributions in which he criticised the state’s war on Sinai-based militants, and articles in Beirut-based newspapers Al-Safir Arabic and Al-Modon in which he called the new Suez Canal a delusion. 

A criminal court ordered his release after one year of remand detention, but the prosecution successfully appealed the decision. 

In December 2017, his case was referred to a military court, which sentenced him to 10 years in prison in May 2018. The sentence was reduced in October 2022 to seven years, and he was released two months later.