Journalism Is Not a Crime

Shawkan: Trapped in a Cage

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

In a court hearing in Cairo, Egypt, earlier today,the trial of the photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid (“Shawkan”) and the 738 other defendants was delayed again, this time until September 6.

Daily News Egypt reported that two defendants leveled accusations of torture against Egypt’s deputy interior minister, Hassan El-Sohagy, and demanded investigations.
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Is Dawit Isaak Still Alive?

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

In a rare interview in June with France’s RFI (Radio France Internationale), Eritrea’s Foreign Minister, Osman Saleh, spoke with RFI’s Anthony Lattier about Eritrea’s “political prisoners,” and he specifically revealed that one who has been in prison since 2001, the journalist Dawit Isaak, is still alive.

It was the first official Eritrean acknowledgement of Isaak’s existence since 2009, when the nation’s president, Isaias Afwerki, ominously told a Swedish journalist that Eritrea “knows what to do with” Isaak. Osman Saleh told Lattier that Isaak “is alive, he’s alive” and that all of the nation’s “political prisoners” are alive and well. He rebuffed any suggestion that any independent agency verify this as a fact, however.
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A New Delay for Shawkan

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The second hearing in the trial of the photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid (“Shawkan”) was delayed until August 9 due to the “involuntary absence” of Shawkan and the other 738 defendants.

Shawkan’s lawyer, Karim Abdelrady, wrote in a social media post, “The Security Directorate addressed the court to announce that the defendants were not able to be transferred from prison to the courtroom, due to security reasons which it did not specify.”
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