Rights group: Reporter jailed in Egypt dies from virus

[Shiloh]

Source: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/07/13/rights-group-reporter-jailed-in-egypt-dies-from-virus/

Rights group: Reporter jailed in Egypt dies from virus
by The Associated Press
Posted Jul 13, 2020 3:45 pm EDT
Last Updated Jul 13, 2020 at 3:54 pm EDT


CAIRO — A prominent Egyptian journalist who had been jailed on charges of broadcasting false news died of COVID-19 on Monday, according to an international press watchdog, raising fears that the coronavirus may be spreading undetected in Egypt’s notoriously crowded prisons.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that Mohamed Monir, 65, contracted the disease caused by the coronavirus in pre-trial detention and was released after falling ill in custody.

“Even brief detentions amid the COVID-19 pandemic can mean a death sentence,” the group said in a statement Monday.

Diaa Rashwan, head of the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate, confirmed Monir’s death in a Facebook post, saying they were in touch during his final moments in the hospital. Monir died in an isolation unit at a hospital outside Cairo.

Monir was arrested and taken to Cairo’s Tora prison complex last month after appearing on Al-Jazeera TV, a Qatari-owned channel banned by Egypt’s government...

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/engli...d-19-has-become-Egypts-unofficial-executioner

Covid-19 has become Egypt's unofficial executioner
Mohamed Monir contracted Covid-19 [Getty]
Date of publication: 16 July, 2020
Comment: Sisi's regime knew full well that Scorpion prison's derelict, unsanitary hospital was full of Covid-19 cases, but they sent journalist Monir, regardless, writes Sam Hamad.

There was a dark joke circulating among Egyptians at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The humour might be a little lost in translation, but it went something like "if the virus kills enough Egyptians, the regime will give it a job".

The gallows humour that Egyptians often employ in the face of the brutal realities of life under Sisi now has literal currency within the country. Mohamed Monir, the 65-year-old acclaimed journalist, died this week after contracting Covid-19 amid the deliberate squalor of Egypt's notorious Scorpion Prison.

Monir's "crime" was appearing on Al Jazeera, one of the hundreds of media outlets (including this one) banned by the Sisi regime as it exerts totalitarian control over freedom of speech and information in Egypt.

Following his appearance, the black-clad paramilitaries of the Central Security Forces violently raided his home, eventually arresting the veteran journalist under the now familiar and absurd charges of "spreading fake news" and "joining a terrorist group".

Additionally, in Egypt's Orwellian nightmare state, authorities had combed through his Facebook page, finding alleged evidence of him "misusing social media".

Monir, like many older Egyptians, suffered from diabetes and other lifestyle illnesses that contribute to an increased likelihood of serious or fatal complications from Covid-19. Though his lawyers warned authorities that Monir's health was fragile and he ought to be released pending trial, the regime wouldn't budge. With Monir's health worsening, they sent him to the hospital wing of Scorpion.

This turned out to be a death sentence, and is where there is a truly dark irony to Monir's death. It is currently impossible for anyone to give a precise assessment of the state of the Covid-19 epidemic in Egypt. Part of the reason for this very deliberate environment of obfuscation and obscurantism is the Sisi regime's battle against journalism, which is one front in its wider war against truth.

Egypt is one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to imprisoning journalists and muffling press freedom. Monir was thus a double victim - a martyr first to the regime's brutal siege against journalism, and then to Covid-19.

But one feeds the other...