Matsadaash journalists allege torture and forced confessions to prosecution
Journalists from the independent fact-checking platform Matsadaash documented severe torture and forced, video-recorded false confessions before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on Sunday and Monday, following secret detentions at National Security Sector facilities.
The testimony marks a sharp escalation in the state’s crackdown on independent media, coming after the Ministry of Interior accused the platform of operating as part of the media committees of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) quoted defense lawyers attending the interrogations, including lawyers from EIPR and the Journalists Syndicate, as saying that the journalists reported “being bound with their hands behind their backs and blindfolded while being held and interrogated at National Security facilities. They also reported beatings, forced stripping, electric shocks and threats to harm them or their families.”
EIPR added that officers in various governorates coerced the journalists into reading prepared statements on camera from papers given to them, in what appears to be an effort to manufacture evidence for future prosecution
Matsadaash journalists Abdallah Qadri, Islam Barakat, Mohamed Adel, Mohamed Mahmoud, and Omar Hilal appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on Sunday evening, where questioning lasted for more than 10 hours, after the same prosecution office on Sunday ordered the 15-day detention pending investigation of journalist at the same platform Mohamed Ashraf Abo Emeira in Case No. 8083/2026 Supreme State Security, following an interrogation session that lasted nearly 12 straight hours.
The Supreme State Security Prosecution is resuming questioning of the Matsadaash journalists Monday, a member of the defense team present with them told Al Manassa, explaining that the journalist he accompanied during Sunday’s interrogation requested to formally document his exposure to torture during detention.
The lawyer explained that he submitted a request to the prosecutor to refer the journalist to the Forensic Medicine Authority to document his torture, but no decision was issued by the prosecution regarding the request by the end of Sunday’s questioning.
Meanwhile, EIPR’s statement noted that several journalists requested referrals to the Forensic Medicine Authority to examine their injuries, and the prosecution decided to refer one journalist for a medical examination Monday.
EIPR indicated that attending lawyers urged the prosecution to investigate the journalists’ statements as official complaints, treating them as victims, and requested that “any ‘confessions’ attributed to the journalists during their secret detention be declared invalid, and that the National Security officers responsible for the detention facilities be summoned and questioned about the reported torture.”
The initiative noted that “the accusations against the journalists rest on an investigation report by a National Security officer. The report accused them of setting up a social media page ‘to stir up the Egyptian street and create a revolutionary climate by using technical methods on social media and recruiting people with no political affiliations for their own purposes.’”
Journalists Syndicate board member Eman Ouf said Sunday evening in a Facebook post that she attended the interrogation of colleague Abdallah Qadri at the Supreme State Security Prosecution, noting that he faced charges including “joining a terrorist group, committing crimes of funding a terrorist group, using a website to promote the ideas and beliefs of an extremist terrorist group, receiving and broadcasting its ideas, and broadcasting and publishing news with the aim of disturbing public peace and security.”
She added that she attended the interrogation alongside the full legal unit of the syndicate, pointing out that the defense team demanded Qadri’s release on bail tied to his place of residence or under syndicate guarantee.
She said Abdallah “is reassuring his family and friends despite his poor psychological state,” clarifying that he “has not slept since the day he was arrested.”
The Journalists Syndicate board is holding an emergency meeting Monday to discuss the crisis surrounding the arrest of the six journalists.
Late last Tuesday evening, Matsadaash announced in a statement the arrest of platform editors Mohamed Ashraf Abou Omeira and Abdallah Qadri late Monday night, before later announcing that the number had risen to six journalists following the arrests of Islam Barakat, Mohamed Adel, Mohamed Mahmoud, and Omar Hilal.
More than 48 hours after that announcement, the Ministry of Interior issued a statement regarding the Matsadaash journalists, confirming their arrest after having accused the independent media platform of being “part of the media committees of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood.”
In response, Matsadaash refuted the Interior Ministry’s allegations in a statement, saying, “This claim is false. Over eight years, Matsadaash has published hundreds of corrections and fact-checks of false statements and news promoted by entities and figures affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, and debunked hundreds of rumors spread by media outlets broadcasting from outside Egypt.”
For his part, Journalists Syndicate Vice President Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez confirmed in a prior statement to Al Manassa that the syndicate was not notified in advance of the arrest of the Matsadaash journalists and that families and lawyers were the ones who informed the syndicate head.
The syndicate head then immediately initiated contacts to inquire about the reasons for their arrest and their place of detention, contradicting the Ministry of Interior’s narrative.