Public prosecution dismisses torture testimony by detained Matsadaash journalists
Egyptian public prosecutors on Wednesday rejected allegations that staff from the independent fact-checking platform Matsadaash suffered physical abuse in custody, citing official forensic reports that found no evidence of torture despite rights monitors documenting severe beatings and electric shocks.
On Monday, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) revealed that several detained staff members testified directly to prosecutors about facing torture and severe mistreatment at various National Security agency sites.
Interrogators kept the journalists blindfolded and handcuffed behind their backs throughout questioning, stripped them of their clothes, beat them, subjected them to electric shocks, and threatened physical harm against them and their families.
The board of the Journalists Syndicate lodged an official complaint with the Prosecutor General that same day, demanding an investigation into the physical abuse inflicted on the detainees.
Prosecutors countered those claims in Wednesday’s statement, insisting that prosecutors physically inspected all six defendants and found no visible injuries.
Officials referred three journalists who reported physical violence to the Forensic Medical Authority, whose technical reports concluded that the detainees showed no injuries or marks indicating the use of force.
The prosecution based its case on findings from the Interior Ministry’s National Security sector, which branded Matsadaash a media mouthpiece run from abroad by Muslim Brotherhood committees to spread rumors, circulate false statements, undermine state institutions, fuel public outrage, and incite street demonstrations.
State investigators alleged that the journalists systematically broadcast rumors, highlighted state shortcomings while ignoring achievements, disparaged the performance of public officials, engineered and amplified localized social and economic disputes, and recycled misinformation from Brotherhood-linked outlets.
Security forces had arrested the journalists on Sept. 28 and 29, holding them incommunicado in enforced disappearance for five days before presenting them to state security prosecutors. Authorities subsequently remanded the team to 15 days of pretrial detention on charges of “spreading false news” and “joining a terrorist group.”
Prosecutors confirmed they issued the initial warrants to arrest and search the journalists, adding that questioning took place before defense lawyers and a representative from the Journalists Syndicate for the union-registered defendant.
According to the prosecution’s statement, the primary defendant confessed to joining the Brotherhood’s media apparatus alongside his colleagues, running the platform under instructions from an exiled leader via encrypted applications, collecting monthly foreign-currency payments routed through a foreign company, and posting material favorable to the outlawed organization.
The prosecution noted that the remaining defendants denied joining the Muslim Brotherhood, though one stated he had severed past ties with the group prior to joining Matsadaash.
Prosecutors added that all defendants—save for one—acknowledged working for Matsadaash and receiving regular salaries denominated in US dollars, while one detainee allegedly confessed that the editorial strategy deliberately magnified state deficiencies to provoke civic unrest.
The statement concluded by noting that digital forensic inspections of seized phones and online accounts revealed closed communication groups, email threads with overseas administrators, and pro-Brotherhood posts on an account belonging to one journalist who denied authoring them, prompting the prosecution to affirm their continued pretrial detention.
The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate had previously defended the newsroom, underscoring that the detained staff followed every legal channel to formalize their employment, filing official employment contracts with Egyptian banks to process their salaries openly and demonstrate good faith under domestic law.
Syndicate leaders stressed that a journalist’s criminal and ethical liability extends only to their verified reporting, adding that verifying an employer’s underlying corporate funding remains the statutory responsibility of state regulators rather than working reporters.
The syndicate also pointed out that staff members had submitted identical contracts during a similar security crisis three years earlier. At that time, authorities publicized the names of the entire newsroom—including three of the journalists arrested in the current sweep—and released a fourth detained reporter after two days without filing charges, clearing the way for the team to resume legitimate journalistic work without suspicion.
The interior ministry had previously published a bulletin classifying Matsadaash as a subversive front for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Matsadaash rejected the ministry’s characterization in a counter-statement, calling the accusation baseless. The outlet noted that across eight years of independent reporting, its staff published hundreds of rigorous fact-checks debunking falsehoods pushed by Muslim Brotherhood figures and dismantled hundreds of fabricated claims broadcast by foreign-based networks.