The head of the Egyptian press union denied the pressure on the detained journalists

Six journalists from the independent platform Matsadaash allege torture in detention, which Egypt denies.

The head of Egypt's journalists' union has insisted that the organization will continue to fight for press freedom after being criticized for defending six journalists who were arrested last month and accused of joining a "terrorist" group.

"What happens to one colleague affects all of us and may happen to others tomorrow," Khalid al-Balshi said in a statement on Sunday. "Violating a journalist's freedom is violating everyone's freedom and undermining the safeguards that protect that freedom."

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The end of his list of statements came after the syndicate filed a complaint with Egypt's public prosecutor alleging torture of detained journalists working for the investigative website Matsadaash. Egyptian officials have denied the allegations, while pro-government commentators have criticized the organization for defending journalists.

Mohammad Adel, Mohammad Ashraf Abu Amira, Islam Barakat, Omar Hilal, Mohammad Mahmoud and Abdullah Qadri were arrested on September 28 and 29 and have since appeared before the High Security Prosecutor's Office, which prosecutes national security cases. They have been kept in temporary detention for 15 days, awaiting investigation.

Egyptian prosecutors have accused the six journalists of working for a media organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that Egyptian authorities have cracked down on for years after a 2013 coup against Egypt's elected president, Mohamed Morsi, of which he was a member. Egypt has officially designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a "terrorist" group, a claim it strongly denies, while rights groups have accused Egyptian authorities of cracking down on freedoms.

Abdulrahman Mansour, the founder of Matsadash, has also denied any connection between this media platform and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Al-Balashi said in his statement: The basic principle governing all these cases, especially in dealing with accused people in general and vulnerable people in particular, is that the accused is innocent until proven guilty.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), whose lawyers are representing the six journalists, said they were initially detained for five days without any contact with their families or lawyers. After the complaint, the journalists appeared before the prosecutor and were interrogated in the presence of their lawyers and the representative of the journalists' union.

EIPR said the journalists were being held under Egypt's 2015 anti-terrorism law, which allows suspects to be detained before appearing before prosecutors "if there is a risk of a terrorist crime and the need to address that risk". However, the human rights group noted that prosecutors are only alleging that the journalists published "false" rumors or reports.

The EIPR said on October 7: "The public prosecutor should have identified an imminent terrorist threat, which required them to be deprived of their right to appear before judicial authorities within 24 hours of their arrest.

EIPR also said that most of the six journalists said they were tortured after their arrest, including beatings and electric shocks. The organization added that some of the detainees were forced to record false confessions.

The Egyptian Ministry of Interior has denied these accusations.

Matsadaash was founded in 2018 as a fact-checking platform, but has since expanded into investigative journalism. Its website is blocked in Egypt, but it has more than 1.3 million followers on Facebook.

The outlet has previously faced pressure from Egyptian authorities, including in 2023, when one of its journalists, Karim Asad, was arrested after publishing a Matsadash investigation into a suspected smuggling scandal involving a plane that had flown from Cairo to Zambia. He was later released.