German authorities arrested senior Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour Saturday after Egypt issued an international arrest warrent, reported Reuters.
A German police spokesman said Mansour was detained at Berlin’s Tegel airport while boarding a Qatar Airways flight to Doha. He now faces possible extradition to Egypt.
A lawyer representing Al Jazeera told Reuters the arrest was part of a wider crackdown by Egypt on the Qatar-based news service, which Egyptian authorities have accused of affiliation with the banned Muslim Brotherhood. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled the movement as a popular uprising led to the removal of elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in the summer of 2013.
Egypt, which has in recent years detained a number of Al Jazeera journalists within its borders, in February released Peter Greste, an Australian journalist for the news network who was held in prison for 400 days on charges that included aiding terrorists.
Two other Al Jazeera journalists detained in Egypt, Egyptian-Canadian Mohammad Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohammed, were released on bail in February after remaining in custody for over a year on charges of spreading false news and aiding a terrorist organization. They have denied the charges. The two are to be given a retrial before the Cairo Criminal Court on June 25.
