After his arrest, Shawkan remained in pre-trial detention for two years, until Sept. 17, 2015, when prosecutors decided to refer him to trial , along with a number of other defendants, on charges of unlawful assembly, demonstration of force, murder and possession of explosives and unlicensed firearms. Some of the charges, such as murder, are punishable by death.

Close colleagues of Shawkan told Al-Monitor that he had been working as a photojournalist for about 10 years when he was arrested on August 14, 2013, as Egyptian security forces dispersed the Rabaa al-Adawiya protest by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters. He worked at Al-Ahram al-Massai, a newspaper, for six months before becoming a freelancer. He then worked with several agencies, including Demotix, the British photo agency for which he was covering the 2013 demonstrations.

Abu Zeid continued, “Following the UNESCO decision, the Foreign Ministry commissioned Egypt’s delegate to UNESCO in Paris, Ihab Badawi, to hand over to the secretariat of the organization a complete file on all the charges Shawkan is accused of. The charges are of a purely criminal nature and have no political grounds, contrary to what some human rights activists defending Shawkan have claimed. These charges have nothing to do with his practice of journalism or freedom of expression.”

UNESCO had announced its awarding of the prize to Shawkan on April 23, a day after Egypt's Foreign Ministry expressed its opposition to the organization doing so. In an April 22 statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said, “The Foreign Ministry regrets the involvement of an organization like UNESCO in honoring a person accused of terrorist acts, homicides, assault on policemen and citizens as well as the burning and destruction of public and private property.”

CAIRO — “The world has not forgotten [Shawkan],” Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo said on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, in an address at a ceremony in Accra awarding the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to the Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, better known as Shawkan. Akufo-Addo called on the individuals and institutions fighting for Shawkan's release from an Egyptian prison not to lose hope.

Maria Risa, president of the UNESCO Prize Committee, said in an official statement that Shawkan was chosen in recognition of his courage, resistance and commitment to freedom of expression and opinion. Abu Zeid’s government statement accused UNESCO of selecting Shawkan based on recommendations of rights groups suspected of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and receiving funding from Qatar, with which Cairo broke relations last summer.

Ali Abdel Aal, speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives, similarly criticized the award. In an April 23 public statement, he charged, “UNESCO granted the award to a person accused of a criminal offense. The decision was based on reports issued by some suspicious organizations financed by countries known to support terrorism. [UNESCO] has nothing to do with political affairs, [but] it has tried to take a political road in the past, which led some countries to withdraw from it.” Of note, the United States and Israel withdrew from UNESCO in October and December, respectively, accusing it of discriminating against Israel.

Abdel Aal had added, “We, in the Egyptian House of Representatives, warn this organization and call on it to stay away from politics and focus on education, science and culture, in accordance with its regulations.”

Gamal Eid, director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), told Al-Monitor that Shawkan’s defense team would appear before the court within days to inform it that Shawkan had received the prestigious international press freedom award, with the hope that it will improve his legal position in the case.

Ali Bader, a member of the Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives, told Al-Monitor that the chamber has not taken an official position for or against Shawkan or encouraged any organization to condemn him, as it is up to the Egyptian judiciary to decide his fate.

That said, Bader added, “There are objections [in parliament] to honoring a defendant in a criminal case that has political dimensions. There is also objection to the pressure that such an international award puts on the Egyptian authorities and judiciary to have him released on the ground that he is an international symbol. Had UNESCO granted him the award following his release without conviction, we would not have objected, even if he and his supporters are deemed to be opponents of the political regime.”

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Alaa Abed, head of the parliamentary Human Rights Committee, charged that Shawkan was a “representative of the Muslim Brotherhood's media arm in the Rabaa al-Adawiya protest” and expressed his apparent displeasure about Shawkan's work covering the anti-Brotherhood protests of June 30, 2013. Addressing these accusations against Shawkan, Khaled al-Balashi, a former member of the Journalists Syndicate, told Al-Monitor that the jailed journalist is not affiliated with the Brotherhood and was not involved in the Rabaa al-Adawiya sit-in.

“The authorities consider every nonofficial party that documented the sit-in as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Balashi said. “Also every person who considered the June 30 popular protests against the Muslim Brotherhood to be a coup is deemed by the authorities as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, although there is no legal provision that prevents journalists from describing the June 30 events as a coup. Holding Shawkan accountable for deeming the June 30 events a coup or for his views while failing to provide proof of his involvement with the Brotherhood in any crime is a violation of freedom of the press.”

Abdul Qader Atta, a professor of political science at the University of Assiut, told Al-Monitor that Egyptian decision-makers' objection to UNESCO's action is not related to Shawkan's receiving an award, but rather a belief that UNESCO's decision was influenced by cultural and rights organizations allegedly supported by Qatar, such as ANHRI, which since 2015 has ensured that Shawkan has a lawyer.

Compounding Egyptian officials' pique is the battle it waged in October with Qatar over the selection of a new director general of UNESCO, a competition eventually won by Audrey Azoulay of France.