Head of the Sudanese Journalist Union Mohi Eddeen Titawi said Monday that Egyptian journalist Shaimaa Adel is being detained along with others pending investigation into a case that is not related to her work as a journalist.
Adel, 25, who works for the privately-owned Egyptian paper Al-Watan, was arrested last week while covering student protests in Khartoum.
Titawi told Al-Masry Al-Youm that he was not given any further information but was told that Adel is in good health.
“Adel did not enter Sudan as a journalist and did not inform the Sudanese Embassy in Cairo nor the Egyptian Embassy in Khartoum that she was in the country to work as a journalist,” Titawi said. “She also did not contact the External Information Council of the Information Ministry, which governs the work of foreign journalists.”
Titawi added that he would call for Adel’s release once investigations are concluded.
The secretary general of Egypt’s Journalists Syndicate, Karim Mahmoud, called on the Sudanese authorities to release Adel for the sake of the close relationship between the two countries.
Mahmoud added that the syndicate is closely following Adel’s case, who has been detained in Sudan for over a week.
The Egyptian foreign minister has called his counterpart in Khartoum and demanded the quick release of the journalist, Mahmoud said.
The Journalist Syndicate’s freedom committee denounced Adel’s detention and demanded her immediate release. They called on the Egyptian government to do more to secure her freedom.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
