Foreign Minister Sameh Shokry has indicated that an Al Jazeera TV host is wanted back in Egypt to face trial for his connection to violent crimes that occurred during the revolution in 2011.
Shokry said, "Egypt is exerting great effort to arrest media host Ahmed Mansour of Al Jazeera Channel in Germany and hand him over to Egypt for trial."
"There are contacts on the highest level working on handing over Ahmed Mansour to Egypt," Shokry said in a phone-in with TV channel al-Qahera wal Nas Saturday evening.
The minister said there is no extradition agreement between Germany and Egypt. He added that Mansour was arrested in Germany upon a request from Egyptian authorities to the international Interpol.
The Egyptian ambassador in Berlin is tasked with clarifying the reason behind Egypt's request to arrest Mansour, on both the official and media levels, and put him on trial.
Mansour is an Egyptian TV host with Al Jazeera Channel and is known for his ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.
"I am still under arrest at the Berlin airport, awaiting my referral to the investigator," Mansour wrote on Twitter Saturday.
The German police told AFP: "A 52-year old journalist has been arrested at Berlin airport before heading to Doha, upon an international arrest warrant issued by the Egyptian authorities."
The arrest took place at 15:20 Berlin local time, 13:20 GMT, said the German police spokeperson. Mansour is Egyptian and has a British nationality, he added.
At nearly 6:00 GMT, the man was still in the custody of the police, the latter whom identified him and should refer him to the prosecutor. The prosecutor will then decide whether he will be extradited, according to the spokesman.
The Al Jazeera Channel, meanwhile, has called on the German authorities to release Mansour.
In Cairo, a senior judicial official told AFP on condition of anonymity: "We submitted more than one arrest warrant against Mansour to the Interpol a long time ago as he is accused in more than one violent case and had rulings issued against him."
The official added Mansour should be handed over to Egypt for trial.
An Egyptian police official said that Mansour was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison for his conviction in the case of the torture of a lawyer in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution in 2011. The source pointed out that the ruling against Mansour was issued in 2014. Cairo has accused Al Jazeera and Qatar of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, labeled by Egyptian authorities as a terrorist group, as well as toppled president and group member Mohamed Morsi.
Mansour added on Twitter: "The question is: How have the German government and the Interpol turned into a tool in the hands of the bloody coup regime in Egypt led by the terrorist Abdel Fattah al-Sisi?"
Al Jazeera reported that Mansour was sentenced in absentia in 2014 by the Egyptian judiciary to 15 years in prison over charges of "torturing a lawyer in Tahrir Square in 2011 during the 25 January revolution."
It added that Mansour rejected these absurd accusations.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
