The newly-elected head of the Journalists' Syndicate has vowed to resolve the dilemma of reporters detained by authorities over their alleged affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, a newspaper reported.
Al-Mal newspaper said Yehia Qallash met with a number of detained reporters’ families who began an open-ended sit-in inside the syndicate on Monday.
It quoted him as saying in exclusive statements that he had asked the families to give him time to resolve their crisis so as not to give an impression that he had made a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood to back his rise to the syndicate’s chairmanship.
Several reporters have been arrested over their alleged involvement in protests, riots and violence by Muslim Brotherhood backers since the ouster of group leader Mohamed Morsi from Egypt’s presidency in 2013.
Iman Mahrous, the wife of Ahmed Sebea, a journalist standing trial over charges of inciting violence, told Al-Mal they had agreed with Qallash to suspend their sit-in to wait for the outcome of his efforts.
Sebea is standing trial along with several Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including its Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, over charges of inciting and plotting violence following the dispersal of the Brotherhood’s landmark sit-in in Rabaa al-Adaweya in 2013.
