Journalist Basma Moustafa appeared, on Sunday, at the Supreme State Security Prosecution. The prosecution accused Basma of publishing false news and put her on parole for 15 days on case no. 959 of year 2020. On Saturday, al-Manassa news website announced the disappearance of the Egyptian journalist Basma Mostafa whilst working in al-Awamiyah.

The last contact with Basma was at 11:15am on Saturday, during which she said that a policeman had stopped her in the city of Luxor, looked at her ID card, and then allowed her to continue walking, but kept following her.

The Luxor Police Department denied her presence or any knowledge of her whereabouts. Amr Badr, a member of the Syndicate Council and its freedom committee, acknowledged Basma’s disappearance without further details.

Basma was conducting field coverage of the events in al-Awamiyah, which witnessed clashes between the security forces and citizens in the past two weeks, following the killing of a village resident by the security forces during his brother’s arrest. Eyewitnesses said that police force members killed Awais al-Rawy after a police officer shot him three times. The police forces stormed al-Rawy’s house to arrest his younger brother, and when they did not find him, the officer slapped al-Rawy’s father, so Awais slapped the officer and the officer shot Awais.

Egypt is ranked No. 166 globally in the World Press Freedom Ranking issued by Reporters Without Borders.