Berlin prosecutor’s office confirms British-Egyptian journalist was detained at airport of warrant from Egypt, where three of his network colleagues were jailed

A senior journalist with al-Jazeera has been detained in Germany as a result of an Egyptian arrest warrant, raising a possible international dimension to the antagonism between Cairo and the Qatar-based network.



Ahmed Mansour was detained at Berlin’s Tegel airport while attempting to board a flight to Doha on Saturday, and his case was due to be considered by prosecutors in Berlin on Monday.

Mansour was convicted in absentia in 2014 of torturing a lawyer in Tahrir Square in 2011. He rejected the charges, calling them “a flimsy attempt at character assassination”.

The British-Egyptian journalist initially told al-Jazeera that authorities in Germany held him on an Interpol notice; however it later transpired he was held after a request from Egypt.

Martin Steltner, a spokesman for the Berlin state prosecutor in whose custody Mansour was held, said: “It was an Egyptian arrest warrant ... The problem is, as state prosecutors we have jurisdiction because he was arrested in Berlin. We cannot begin to assess the content of the arrest warrant yet. We’re going to start that tomorrow [Monday].”



Steltner said that if the case had political consequences, the foreign ministry would be involved in the decision about what to do with Mansour.



The arrest, coming only two weeks after Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s state visit to Berlin, has sparked outrage among Germany’s opposition parties. “After the red carpet for Sisi, is the German government now [his] henchman?” said Green party MP Franziska Brantner on Twitter.

Egypt accuses both Qatar and al-Jazeera of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which was branded a terrorist organisation after the military deposed president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Three journalists with al-Jazeera English spent more than 400 days in prison following their arrest in Cairo in late 2013. The trial was regarded internationally as a farce.

Steltner also said that if the case had political consequences, the foreign ministry would be involved in the decision about what to do with Mansour.

Whether it is down to a bureaucratic misunderstanding or not, the arrest, coming only two weeks after Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s state visit to Berlin, has sparked outrage among Germany’s opposition parties, and already looks like an embarrassment for Angela Merkel’s government.

Mansour was convicted in absentia in 2014 of torturing a lawyer in Tahrir Square in 2011. Mansour rejected the charges, calling them “a flimsy attempt at character assassination”.

Meik Gauer, a spokesman for the federal police in Berlin, earlier told the Guardian: “It was an international arrest warrant. We handed him over to the Berlin police last night. He will be arraigned before the committing magistrate, who will decide whether he stays in custody or whether he will be extradited or what happens in this case. I expect that to happen on Monday.

“All countries that put out an international arrest warrant that is also valid in Germany will go via the Bundeskriminalamt [federal criminal police office],” he continued. “The BKA then puts the arrest warrant into its system, so that the federal police at the border control also has access to it. Our contact is not Interpol, but the BKA – that is the central base where all documents for Germany are filed. I don’t know if Interpol had anything to do with it.”

An online petition calling on Angela Merkel to release Mansour has gathered around 17,000 signatures.

Interpol said in October 2014 that it had denied a request from Egypt to issue a “red notice” – similar to an international arrest warrant – as the request did not satisfy its requirements.



Reached by phone in Cairo, a spokesman for Egypt’s interior ministry declined to comment on the case. Interpol confirmed there was no red notice, but declined to comment further.

Al-Jazeera’s acting director general, Mostefa Souag, said: “The crackdown on journalists by Egyptian authorities is well known. Our network, as the Arab world’s most-watched, has taken the brunt of this. Other countries must not allow themselves to be tools of this media oppression, least of all those that respect freedom of the media as does Germany.”

Mansour recently conducted an interview with Abu Muhammad al-Julani, the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, a Syrian insurgent group affiliated with al-Qaida.

Mansour’s detention could raise concerns for three journalists with al-Jazeera English who are facing an ongoing ordeal in the Egyptian legal system. Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed and Peter Greste spent more than 400 days in prison after they were arrested in Cairo in December 2013. They were convicted in a bizarre trial of collaborating with a terrorist group – a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood – and sentenced to seven to 10 years in prison.

An appeals court ordered a retrial in that case in December, and Greste was deported to his home country of Australia. He faces a possible conviction in absentia as the retrial comes to a conclusion in Cairo in the coming weeks. He called Mansour’s arrest a “hugely worrying development”.

Al-Jazeera has been at the centre of a geopolitical dispute between Egypt and Qatar, a small Gulf state widely regarded as sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood. Since Egypt’s armed forces removed the Brotherhood-backed president Morsi from power in July 2013, a military-backed government has launched a clampdown on the Brotherhood and other opposition groups. Thousands of people have been jailed and more than 1,000 killed in a series of confrontations between security forces and pro-Morsi protesters.