The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk is calling for the “immediate and unconditional” release of Egyptian director and screenwriter Omar Salah Marei who is being held behind bars in Cairo reportedly on trumped up charges of “deliberately spreading false news,” based on posts on his social media accounts.
Omar Salah Marei, 35 – who is known in Egypt‘s film community for several shorts that blend humor with sharp social and political commentary – was arrested on the evening of May 11 in his Cairo appartment where, according to ICFR, plainclothes security officers “broke down the door, seized four laptops, two phones, cash, and scripts for future projects, and took Omar to an undisclosed location,” without a warrant.
“For six days, no authority acknowledged holding him, and he had no contact with his family or his lawyer,” ICFR said in a statement.
Salah Marei then resurfaced on May 16 before Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution, which is “the most serious prosecutorial track in the country,” according to ICFR. His lawyer, who is prominent human rights attorney Khaled Ali, confirmed to ICFR that Salah Marei has now been submitted by Egypt’s authorities to 15 days of pretrial detention, pending investigation. The charge: “deliberately spreading false news, based on posts on his social media accounts,” ICFR said.
