Supreme State Security Prosecution interrogates journalist after home arrests

Security forces went on Sunday morning to the homes of Bastet KE Media owner Monther al-Khilaly and journalist Ahmed Refaat, editor-in-chief of the company’s news outlet EgyptKE, according to Eman Auf, a representative of the Journalists Syndicate, who spoke to Mada Masr on Sunday afternoon.

Following their arrest, they were presented to the Supreme State Security Prosecution, Auf said, adding that their arrests were carried out without authorities following the legal protocol of notifying the syndicate in advance of any complaint against the defendants.

Both the syndicate’s lawyer and council member Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafiz are currently attending the investigation, she added.

Broadcaster Qaswa al-Khilaly, the sister of Monther, published a post on her social media profiles on Sunday afternoon saying that her brother had been arrested by a group of security personnel who raided and searched her house before seizing the security cameras. Refaat’s arrest from his home was carried out in parallel, she said. The security personnel refused to disclose their identity and said she should follow them in her car, though she ultimately lost sight of them on the road.

The Interior Ministry published a statement shortly afterward claiming that the Public Prosecution was the body undertaking the investigation and that it had issued an arrest order on the basis of a complaint submitted by the head of the Poultry Chamber at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce accusing EgyptKE of publishing statements falsely attributed to him. The ministry added that the Journalists Syndicate had received prior notice and that “the procedures took place in the legitimate and legal framework.”

Auf told Mada Masr, however, that the syndicate did not receive prior notification or warning regarding the defendants before their arrest, indicating that authorities have done the same thing on several occasions recently, pointing to the case of Mohamed Taher, who was referred to the Prosecution without prior notice after the police’s cybercrimes unit invited him to a “friendly conversation.”

Auf noted that the law clearly states that either the syndicate chief, a delegate or the syndicate lawyer should attend any investigations into syndicate members.

Article 29 of the law organizing journalism and media states that no punishments that infringe upon personal freedoms can be meted out as consequences for publishing or speech crimes, except in the case that the crime entails incitement to violence, discrimination, slander or libel.

Khilaly said the two arrests are part of a “targeted campaign” since 2024 to erase her from the media scene. She said she has been “prohibited from appearing everywhere,” her “livelihood from any media or consultative cut off,” and other bodies blocked from contracting with her. She said that her “Misaa Maa Qaswa” program, which used to air on TeN TV, was shut down without warning and her fees seized, her colleagues terrorized, a digital smear campaign launched against her, and people were warned not to work with her. She wrote that she had also “been prevented from writing and participating in political life.”

Khilaly used to be a familiar face on the group of channels owned by the state-affiliated United Media Services. Her program was taken off air in May 2024, however, with Khilaly announcing at the time that the decision was made by UMS due to her coverage of the newly appointed education minister.

Khilaly — who later wrote a number of columns criticizing leading UMS figures and other media pundits and politicians from the National Front Party, founded with funding from businessman Ibrahim al-Argany — called on Sunday for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to intervene. She noted that she had previously worked as a political consultant with the president's office and “the national state agencies” and that her family has a respectable relationship with “the institutions,” which led her to remain quiet about what had happened to her until recently, when her exclusion “became more violent.”