Egypt arrests four Al Jazeera journalists

The journalists ‘broadcast live news harming domestic security,’ the interior ministry says, adding they were also found in possession of Muslim Brotherhood ‘publications’.

CAIRO // Egyptian secret police have arrested an award-winning Australian journalist and an Egyptian reporter for the Qatar-based Al Jazeera channel on suspicion of illegally broadcasting news harming “domestic security”, the interior ministry said.

Al Jazeera confirmed the arrests in a statement and said police also detained a producer and a cameraman.

Officers of the National Security service raided their makeshift bureau at a Cairo hotel on Sunday, arresting two of the journalists and confiscating their equipment, the ministry said.

It did not identify the journalists, only mentioning that one was a “Muslim Brotherhood member” and the other an Australian.

Al Jazeera English identified them as the Cairo bureau chief, Mohammed Adel Fahmy, and the Australian reporter, Peter Greste.

It said a producer, Baher Mohammed, and a cameraman, Mohammed Fawzi, were also arrested on Sunday evening.

The raid came after authorities listed the Muslim Brotherhood movement of the removed president, Mohammed Morsi, as a “terrorist organisation”, making membership in the group or even possession of its literature a crime.

The journalists “broadcast live news harming domestic security,” the interior ministry said, adding they were also found in possession of Muslim Brotherhood “publications”.

Mr Greste, a former BBC journalist, won the prestigious Peabody award in 2011 for a documentary on Somalia. Mr Fahmy, who formerly worked with CNN, is a well-known journalist in Cairo with no known links to the Brotherhood.

Egypt’s military-installed government cracked down on Al Jazeera’s affiliates following the overthrow of Mr Morsi in July, accusing the broadcaster of pro-Brotherhood coverage.

Several Al-Jazeera reporters remain in detention, including Abdullah Elshamy, a journalist for the Arab language station arrested on August 14 when police dispersed an Islamist protest camp in Cairo, killing hundreds in clashes.

The government declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation last week after a suicide car bombing of a police headquarters killed 15 people.

* Agence France-Presse