/middleeast

▻https://madamasr.com/en/2019/11/23/news/u/update-from-mada-masr-regarding-the-arrest-of-colleague-shady-zalat
The whereabouts of Mada Masr editor Shady Zalat remain unknown 18 hours after he was detained in the early morning of November 23.

While security forces told Shady’s wife that he had been being taken to the Giza Security Directorate, Hassan al-Azhari, Mada Masr’s lawyer, was told that Shady was not at the directorate when he visited the premises this morning. We now consider Shady disappeared.

“Shady’s detention is not legal,” Azhari says. “He hasn’t yet been referred to an investigative authority yet, a delay that is a common practice used by authorities in Egypt in targeting journalists and others.”

In addition to our deep concern for our colleague’s personal safety and well being, we view his arrest as an existential threat to Mada Masr. It comes in the wake of the largest arrest campaign since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi formally came to power in 2014, with over 4,000 people detained since anti-government protests broke on September 20, according to rights groups. Activists, university professors, lawyers, journalists and political opposition figures have all been detained in recent weeks.