On Tuesday, the Egyptian publisher Ahmed Diouf’s family said it received a call from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry stating that he had been arrested and investigated by the Saudi authorities.

Egyptian publishers have talked on social media platforms about the disappearance of Diouf while attending the Riyadh International Book Fair. They said that the Saudi security forces took Diouf from inside the fair to the hotel where he was staying and seized his belongings before taking him to an unknown destination. It is unclear what charges the Saudi authorities may have brought against the Egyptian publisher. Publishers and activists have appealed to the Egyptian government to take all necessary measures to find out where Diouf is being held and to provide him with a lawyer.