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Egypt's police arrest two journalists at Press Syndicate Journalists Amr Badr and Mahmoud El-Sakka were staging a sit-in at the Press Syndicate to object to their arrest warrants
Egypt's security forces stormed late Sunday the Press Syndicate in Cairo and arrested two journalists who were staging a sit-in inside it, the head of the syndicate said. Yahia Qallash told CBC TV that about 50 security personnel broke into the syndicate to execute arrest warrants for Amr Badr and Mahmoud El-Sakka. Critics said the surprise move was a violation of Egypt's constitution. "The security forces should have informed the syndicate beforehand ... what happened is unprecedented in the history of the syndicate," Qallash added. The interior ministry disputed Qallash's account. "Only four officers entered the syndicate to arrest the journalists, who willingly went out with them," the ministry spokesman Abu Bakr Abdel Kerim told CBC. The general prosecuion issued arrest warrants for both Badr and El-Sakka for anumber of charges including "spreading rumors about disputed Red Sea islands Tiran and Sanafir" last week, Qallash said. Two demonstrations erupted last month following Egypt's decision to hand over the two islands to Saudi Arabia. Scorers were arrested and many were referred to court over a number of charges, including taking part in unauthorised protests. Saudi and Egyptian officials said the islands belong to the kingdom and were only under Egyptian control because Saudi Arabia's founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud, asked Egypt in 1950 to protect them. Amr Badr, founder of Yanair (January) news portal and its editor-in-chief,and journalist Mahmoud El-Sakka, who works for the same website, were staging a sit-in in the syndicate to protest against the arrest warrants as well as the storming of their houses by security forces last month. Slamming what he described as a “police state”, Qallash called on President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to intervene immediately. A group of journalists, lawyers and human rights activists started a sit-at the syndicate to protest the arrest of Badr and El-Sakka. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/205870.aspx
