After seven years of detention following a military court’s judgment, the Egyptian authorities have released journalist and researcher Ismail al-Iskandrani, 39-years-old. At the time of his release, Al-Iskandrani was being held in a police station in the Alexandria Governorate, in the north of the country.
Al-Iskandrani was recently transferred from Badr Prison in the country’s capital, Cairo, to al-Montazah police station in Alexandria.
During that transfer, al-Iskandrani was beaten by a prison officer, and denied food and adequate clothing.
Al-Iskandrani was arrested on 30 November 2017, and in May 2018 he was sentenced by military court to 10 years in prison on charges of “joining a group established in contravention to the law, spreading false news, and publishing military secrets.”
Such charges are typically used against regime critics.
According to Reporters Without Borders, Egypt now ranks 166th out of 180 countries for its level of press freedoms. The Egyptian regime detains the third largest number of journalists in the world, after China and Myanmar.
