Egypt: Journalist Doaa Khalifa Went Missing For Three Weeks And Was Found Arbitrarily Detained In An Egyptian Prison.

Location: Egypt, Cairo
Date: October 20, 2020

Available in: 🇸🇦  عربي

Journalist Doaa Khalifa found arbitrarily detained in Egypt pending case no.880\2020 after being missing for three weeks. The journalist was abducted following publishing a video calling upon international organizations to help her against Colonel Ahmed Shaaban, Former colonel in military intelligence who intimidated and threatened her. CFWIJ is appalled by these outlawed practices and the escalating level of oppression in Egypt.

Journalist Doaa Khalifa was found detained in Al-Qantar prison after a month of enforced disappearance. Posts on Facebook revealed the location and charges of the journalist who was missing and had no access to lawyers or family members. Doaa is in detention pending case 880\2020 and is facing charges of joining a banned terrorist group and using social media platforms to disseminate rumor and false information and attacking public officials.

On September 2, Doaa published a video on Facebook accusing presidential aide of media, Colonel Ahmed Shaaban of intimidating her and threatening her with jail due to her dissident views. Colonel Shaaban appropriated national media to attack and discredit her. Many state-controlled media outlets and writers attacked Doaa upon Colonel Shaaban's instructions. She described him as Egypt’s executive director. In the video, Doaa implored international organizations to stand with her against these tyrant practices and explained that she sent several calls for President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi with no response. She implied that Colonel Shaaban blackmails her in exchange for sexual favors.

Following this video, the journalist’s account and this video were heavily spammed, and Facebook’s administration removed it from her account and the other accounts and youtube channels that published it.

On September 5, Doaa released another recorded video, claiming that her account has been hacked and that she didn’t mean any of the words published in this video and expressed her apology for the Colonel. It was right after then that the journalist went missing. No activity was found of her on social media platforms and many friends of hers wrote on her wall questioning her absence.

On 18 October, posts and tweets circulated information that Doaa was under house arrest in one of the hotels for a month and was forced to record a video before she was enlisted on Case 880\2020 without investigation and moved to Al-Qanater prison. She had no access to lawyers and even her family members had no idea about her whereabouts.

Releasing this information caused smear campaigns on the accounts that released it. Colonel Ahmed Shaaban is a former Colonel in military intelligence and currently holds a position in the government as president Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi’s aide for media. He is known in the media scene in Egypt as Egypt’s chief editor.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism released a statement on September 4 expressing its support for Doaa against these unethical practices and called upon the president to take deterrent actions against his presidential aide.

CFWIJ is extremely disturbed by these practices of the Egyptian authorities. These acts become evident, to our dismay, that law and justice are sustained in Egypt until further instructions. Kidnapping journalists and detaining them arbitrarily became the modus operandi of the Egyptian regime. International community’s silence on these breaches and outrageous acts allows the Egyptian authorities to brush aside its international commitments and constitutional obligations.

The Coalition For Women In Journalists calls for urgent action by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi towards his aide to prevent replications of these practices in the future. CFWIJ also urges the Egyptian authorities to release the journalist immediately. We also call upon international human rights mechanisms to take an assertive stance against Egyptian authorities' appalling actions.

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The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world, and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.

Follow us on Instagram @womeninjournalism and Twitter @CFWIJ. Our website is WomenInJournalism.org and we can be reached at press@womeninjournalism.org

The Coalition For Women In Journalism closely monitors the incidents in Turkey with great concern. Since March 8, Women's Day, police violence against women journalists increasingly continues in the country. As the coalition, we urge the Turkish state to provide a free environment for journalists. Following the news is our most fundamental democratic right to report. We demand the immediate release of our detained colleagues. Journalism is not a crime. Journalism cannot be prevented.

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