Egypt should end the tragedy of Egyptian journalist Ahmed Al-Najdi, who has been imprisoned for more than 700 days

Stockholm- Skyline calls on Egyptian authorities to end the tragedy of Egyptian journalist Ahmed Al-Najdi, who has been in pre-trial detention for more than 700 days.

In a statement, the human rights foundation Skyline condemns the renewed detention of journalist Najdi, who works directly for Al Jazeera, for a period of 45 days, exceeding the 700 days of pre-trial detention, although there were no concrete charges against him.

Skyline points out that the Egyptian authorities continue to detain Al-Najdi journalist, who is over 70 years old, despite the deterioration of his health, as it was revealed that his foot was injured by diabetes.

It calls on Egyptian authorities to respond to the journalist's family's appeal to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the Prosecutor General to release their son or transfer him to a private hospital at their own expense due to his poor health and fear of having to amputate his foot.

Moreover, Skyline points out that the Egyptian authorities have prolonged the pre-trial detention of journalist Najdi since his arrest during a regular vacation to visit his family in Egypt in August 2020, while ignoring his health condition, which deteriorated due to lack of medical care and necessary analysis.

According to the Najdi family; the journalist suffers from complications of diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery and heart failure, general stiffness in the joints, erosion of the neck cartilage, and 4 herniated discs that require injections between the vertebrae every 6 months, to be able to move without assistance.

The detained journalist also needs urgent surgery for an umbilical hernia, cardiac catheterization, and implantation of a replacement for his rusted knee. He has been denied a pain-relieving injection.

It is noteworthy that journalist Ahmed Al-Najdi had worked for the Egyptian Broadcasting Corporation about a quarter of a century ago and joined Al-Jazeera 21 years ago.

The human rights foundation Skyline calls for an end to the tragedy of the arrest of Al-Najdi and his colleagues and an end to the persecution and arrest of journalists for their work, stressing that this is a serious violation of human rights covenants.

Skyline also calls for an end to the repression of public freedoms and restrictions on freedom of opinion and speech, and demands that Cairo comply with the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Human Rights that prohibit restrictions on public freedoms and freedom of media expression.