Two Egyptian journalists arrested at Cairo sit-in

By Aydogan Kalabalik

CAIRO

Two Egyptian journalists were arrested on Sunday after Egyptian security forces stormed the Egyptian Press Syndicate’s Cairo headquarters, according to eyewitnesses.

Syndicate members had been holding a sit-in held in solidarity with detained journalists and calling for their release.

"The sit-in was organized by the families and friends of several journalists currently in [police] detention," Ahmed Abdel-Aziz, an Egyptian reporter, told Anadolu Agency late Sunday.

According to Abdel-Aziz and other eyewitnesses, dozens of plainclothes policemen stormed the syndicate headquarters and detained journalists Amr Badr and Mahmoud al-Sakka.

In a statement, Khaled al-Balshi, head of the syndicate's freedom committee, described the incident as "an assault unprecedented in the syndicate’s history".