Egypt: Journalist Detained over Facebook Posts – Human Rights Watch

(Beirut) – Egyptian authorities detained prominent independent journalist Ismail Iskandarani over Facebook posts, Human Rights Watch said today. They should immediately and unconditionally release Iskandarani and establish an independent committee to review the detention of thousands of peaceful critics and release all those detained for peaceful speech, assembly, or association. According to his lawyers, security forces arrested Iskandarani on September 24, 2025, at a checkpoint in Matrouh governorate only two days after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pardoned prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and five others. Iskandarani was previously convicted in an unjust military trial over his journalistic work and subsequently served seven years in prison between 2015 and 2022. “Instead of using Alaa Abdel Fattah’s release as an opportunity to correct course, Egyptian authorities arbitrarily detained journalist Ismail Iskandarani after a lengthy Orwellian questioning over his Facebook posts,” said Amr Magdi, senior Middle East and North Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This is a bellwether moment for the Egyptian government and the only way out of its protracted crisis is to stop unlawfully detaining critics and journalists and release all those arbitrarily detained.”  During the early hours of September 24, Iskandarani posted on Facebook that security forces stopped him at a police checkpoint near Matrouh.
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