Prosecutors ordered the detainment of pro-Muslim Brotherhood Rassd Network reporter Aliaa Awad for 15 days pending investigations over allegedly filming armed people who were threatening to target police forces.
The defendant was accused of joining a terrorist group, collaborating with a terrorist cell to film and publish a video that terrified citizens and threatened public security. Awad denied the charges brought against her.
Ten others suspects who allegedly appeared in the video were arrested.
Rassd posted on 14 August a link on Facebook to a video showing a group which dubbed itself Helwan Battalions, where 12 masked armed men threatened to target police forces in south Cairo, hours after a policeman was killed in Helwan about two weeks ago and another attack against a police station in the area, leaving another policeman injured.
The incident marked the first public appearance of an armed group on Cairo streets, amid violence by the Muslim Brotherhood on the first anniversary of dispersing Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins last August.
The Muslim Brotherhood denied the authorities' accusations of having links to the group and denounced the call to use violence.
The video showed a masked man holding a gun and saying, “We got fed up with the peacefulness of the Muslim Brotherhood. We are not Brothers.” He also warned the Interior Ministry that they will target south Cairo police stations.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
