A media freedoms advocacy center has slammed the arrest of a 65-year-old over alleged affiliation with the April 6 Youth Movement.
HRDO Center for the Support of Digital Expression, an Egypt-based NGO advocating media freedom and human rights, said Hassan Mubarak was arrested from his residence late Saturday by National Security Agency officers who said they had found books in his possession which, investigators said, were printed without a license from publishers, and accused him of affiliation with Egypt’s most prominent liberal activist group.
The center said the two books in Mubarak’s possession were one about international investment arbitration and the other a poetic collection on Shaima al-Sabbagh, a socialist activist killed by police during a symbolic march in Cairo last January. HRDO said the books are not legally banned and enjoy a distribution license.
Mubarak’s arrest comes days before the general strike the April 6 Youth Movement had slated for June 11 in protest at economic and social conditions under the current government.
HRDO labelled the incident as “a serious escalation by the Interior Ministry against citizens’ personal freedoms”.
