A journalist was arrested after a photo allegedly showing him punching a policeman made the front pages. Salonaz Sami reports The photo -- of a man punching a police officer during a demonstration -- appeared on the front page of last week's Akhbar Al-Youm. "A protester trying to overstep security barriers assaults a security officer by punching him in the face," was the caption. The demonstration in question, held by the anti-Mubarak movement Kifaya (Enough), took place on 3 August. Unlike the Kifaya protests that took place a few days earlier, no one was arrested on 3 August. However, just hours after the photo appeared in Akhbar Al-Youm, the man in the photo -- identified by the police as journalist Saher Gad of the independent daily Al-Geel -- was arrested from in front of his house in Rod Al-Farag. Gad was charged with assaulting a security officer and tearing his uniform during an anti-Mubarak demonstration in downtown Cairo. He was to be detained temporarily for four days pending further investigations. After spending two days in detention, he was ordered released on LE200 bail by Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed. If convicted, Gad could face three years in jail. Some of Gad's media colleagues are up in arms about the charges. According to Karem Yehia, coordinator of the Journalists for Change Movement, the photo that appeared in the paper was not attributed to a photographer or a news agency, a strange sign in and of itself. "I was at that demonstration," Yehia said, "and I didn't see Gad punching anybody." Gad said that he was shocked by the fact that the photo was being used by the prosecutor's office as evidence against him. "I was told," Gad told Al-Ahram Weekly, "that it was delivered to the prosecutor's office by an anonymous person as well." He thinks the photo was doctored to frame him. Press Syndicate Secretary Yehia Qalash said Gad's arrest was illegal since "by law, the syndicate has to be notified before one of its members is summoned for questioning." Qalash said Gad was covering the demonstrations in his capacity as a journalist. Both the syndicate and the Journalists for Change Movement have issued statements denouncing the arrest. Scores of journalists and members of Kifaya also staged a solidarity demonstration and sit-in in front of the prosecutor-general's office and the Press Syndicate while Gad was in detention. Journalist Mohamed El-Sharqawi, a member of the Kifaya movement, said, "what I don't understand is why they immediately acted upon one photo allegedly showing a civilian attempting to punch a police officer, while there was no response to hundreds of published photos showing security personnel beating and dragging civilians in previous demonstrations?" Gad and others think he is being targeted for being a key witness of the seemingly police-sanctioned abuse against women journalists that took place on 25 May, the day the referendum on amending Article 76 of the constitution took place. "I have personally received direct threats," he said, "that if I didn't back away from being a witness in this investigation, I would be severely punished." The women journalists, along with the syndicate, have filed a complaint with the prosecutor about the abuses, and investigations are currently taking place. On the day the photo was allegedly taken, Gad said, security officers ordered him to leave the area; in spite of the fact that he told them he was there to cover the event as a journalist. "The officer said it would be to my benefit to stop covering such demonstrations; he said that from now on, journalists would not be allowed to cover such protests anymore." Yehia said he had been told the same thing on Saturday 30 July, when he was arrested while covering a Kifaya demonstration. "I have testified about these threats in front of the prosecutor- general, and we are now waiting to see what will happen," he said. A Press Syndicate lawyer, Said Abu Zeid, said he had filed a complaint about the threats with the prosecutor- general's office. A demonstration in support of Gad is being planned for Saturday in front of the Akhbar Al-Youm building. Interior Ministry officials were not available for comment.
