Al Jazeera journalist held in Germany, could be extradited to Egypt

(Image credit: Twitter.com/TheCairoPost)

published 22 June 2015

On Monday, a German court will consider an extradition request from Egypt for Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour, his attorney said.

Mansour was detained as he tried to get on a plane from Berlin to Qatar, and has spent two nights in custody. Last year, Mansour was sentenced to 15 years in prison in absentia on torture charges. A police spokesman said the Egyptian-issued arrest warrant accused Mansour, who has dual British and Egyptian citizenship, of "several crimes," but would not elaborate on any specific charges. Al Jazeera calls the claims false, and said a warrant was previously rejected by Interpol because it didn't meet its rules, the BBC reports.

In a video recorded while detained, Mansour said it was all a "misunderstanding," adding, "It is quite ludicrous that a country like Germany would enforce such a request made by a dictatorial regime like the one we have in Egypt." If the court does agree to the extradition, the German government could still block the ruling.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.