The office of the Press Syndicate of Egypt was raided last month and authorities arrested two journalists inside who were accused of organising anti-government protests.

Unfortunately, journalists have regularly been targeted by the military regime that took control of Egypt in 2013. “As they sentenced me to this, I will not be an opposition figure,” Helal says. As a journalist working for respected international outlets such as the BBC and Al Jazeera outside of Egypt since 1994, he insists that he has never been swayed to report emotionally and has never participated in any political organisations. Helal found out about the allegations as he watched a live press conference by Egypt’s interior minister in the newsroom Helal directed. My interpretation is the Egyptian authorities had to find a link.”

“If there is no link between them and the Qatari intelligence service, there is no case. “If I am innocent, there is no case,” he exclaims. No intelligence officer has been named, nor has evidence of the $50,000 transaction been presented. However, Helal says he had never met any of the alleged co-conspirators before, except Sablan. They also claim that Helal had advanced the group, which is said to include Morsi himself, $50,000 and promised the rest of the money when an unnamed Qatari intelligence officer received the documents. They allege that a fellow Al Jazeera journalist – Alaa Sablan, who was also sentenced to death in absentia – introduced Helal to a group found to be in possession of the documents. Should Egypt’s grand mufti, the official interpreter of Islamic law, recommend that Helal’s death sentence be upheld when a court makes a final decision this Saturday, Helal would become an international fugitive in what observers widely view to be a politically motivated case.Įgyptian authorities claim that Helal, as director of news at Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel, orchestrated a $1 million deal for documents containing sensitive information that went missing from deposed President Mohamed Morsi’s residence in the chaotic aftermath of his ouster by the military in 2013. However, Helal says he understands that what he faces is no joke. “It shows how ridiculous the regime became,” he observes. Helal continues: “We started to make jokes – you introduce yourself to me, I’m Egyptian, you’re Egyptian, and not only your name and your title, how many sentences you have.”Īfter receiving a preliminary sentence of death from an Egyptian court in absentia last month, Helal says he has come to “expect anything” from a regime that also claims the children’s cartoon “Tom and Jerry” incites cultural violence.

“We were sitting in a coffee shop, the lawyer and myself, and by chance another Egyptian was passing by the coffee shop,” Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Helal recounts.

Aljazeera tom jerry cartoon