The Egyptian security forces arrested the photojournalist Hamdy Mokhtar, who is known as “Hamdy al-Zaeem,” at dawn on Tuesday, from his house. “Until when will the Attorney General remain silent towards the crimes that the security forces commit in Egypt by arresting citizens and terrifying them out of the law, which the Attorney General is responsible for its enforcement,” said the Arab Network for Human Rights Information in a press statement, and demanded the Attorney General release al-Zaeem and investigate those who are responsible for his arrest.

ANHRI’s lawyer Ahmed Abdel Latif said that al-Zaeem is still disappeared since his arrest. He added that al-Zaeem’s wife said that a member of the security forces had assaulted their daughter, who protested against the arrest of her father and searched the house without permission.

ANHRI added that al-Zaeem has been suffering humiliation and abuse by the Egyptian authorities over the past five years as he was arrested in September 2016 while he was preparing a press report in front of the journalists’ syndicate in Cairo’s downtown.

Then, the prosecution accused al-Zaeem with the usual charges directed repeatedly at political detainees in Egypt, including joining a terrorist group, promoting its targets on social media, publishing false news, inciting people to demonstrate and using a recording device without legal permission. Al-Zaeem remained on remand for two years before he was granted parole in 2018.