DOHA, Qatar
Al Jazeera has demanded the immediate release of its journalist who has been detained at an airport in German capital Berlin, the Qatari channel announced late Saturday night.
Ahmed Mansour, a senior Al Jazeera Arabic TV journalist, with both Egyptian and British citizenship, was arrested at Tegel Airport as he was heading to Qatar, Al Jazeera said.
Mansour was indicted for allegedly torturing a lawyer in 2011 and was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison by an Egyptian court in 2014. Mansour denied the allegations.
“The airport authorities detained me based on an Interpol order at the request of the Egyptian authorities,” Mansour told Al Jazeera. “I informed [the police] that the global police organization has rejected Egypt's request and that I have this document from the Interpol to prove that I am not wanted on any charge.”
A German judge is expected to issue a decision in Mansour’s case on Monday, according to Al Jazeera.
“We think that the incident has a political dimension because legally, there are no details about the arrest,” Fazli Altin, lawyer of Mansour, told Anadolu Agency. He added that Mansour travelled to Germany from England using his British passport.
Altin said that the situation is “shameful” for Germany.
Meanwhile, a group of people protested on Sunday in front of Berlin police headquarters with banners demanding Mansour’s release.
The incident comes two weeks later after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s visit to Germany.
The Egyptian government accuses Al Jazeera of bias in favor of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group -- an allegation the channel denies -- amid tensions with Doha over Qatar’s criticism of Morsi's 2013 ouster and imprisonment by the army.
In December 2013, three Al Jazeera journalists were arrested in a Cairo hotel only days after Egyptian authorities branded the Muslim Brotherhood -- the group from which Morsi hails -- a "terrorist" group.
The three journalists were all slapped with jail terms ranging from seven to 10 years after being convicted of "broadcasting false news" and "threatening Egypt's national security".
Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were released on bail and are to be retried. Peter Greste, Australian, was deported in February.
Fahmy, who holds dual Egyptian-Canadian citizenship, voluntarily gave up his Egyptian nationality in February in order to qualify for a recently issued presidential decree allowing for the deportation of foreigners convicted in Egyptian courts.
