Germany continues to detain an Al-Jazeera journalist at the behest of Egypt, despite outcries from free-speech activists worldwide and demands from the Arabic broadcast network for their reporter to be “returned immediately.”
Acclaimed journalist Ahmed Mansour was intercepted and arrested by German authorities on Saturday at Berlin’s Tegel airport en route to Doha.
His controversial detention stems from a defective Egyptian warrant for his arrest on trumped up charges which the 52-year-old was convicted of in absentia.
Mansour, who holds both British and Egyptian citizenry, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by an Egyptian kangaroo court for allegedly “torturing” a lawyer in 2011.
His is just the latest in a slew of similar attempted persecutions of outspoken members of the media and former members of jailed ex-president Mohammed Morsi’s outlawed political party.
Nearly all such defendants have been sentenced to death -- including the deposed leader himself -- for a host of *offenses* against the state ranging from criticizing public officials to attempting prison breaks.
Thus, the intermeddling of Germany now to aid Egypt in what is widely regarded by the free world as human rights violations has outraged international onlookers who accuse the Germans of essentially acting as the rogue nation’s henchmen.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Martin Schaefer, however, claims the detention of the famed Al-Jazeera journalist is just “standard” procedure, and extradition of Mansour to Egypt is on hold, whilst the matter can be fully reviewed by the German judiciary.
"There will be an intensive examination of the criminal allegations in the light of due process in the Egyptian judicial system," Schaefer has promised. “Particularly in relation to cases involving the media or to people who are close to the Muslim Brotherhood.”
He added that Berlin prosecutors intend to make a statement concerning the status of Ahmed Mansour’s so called criminal case later in the day.
