The Supreme State Security Prosecution on Sunday ordered Matsadaash journalist Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira detained for 15 days pending investigation, following a 10-hour interrogation attended by a lawyer from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

Abu Emeira is the first of the fact-checking platform’s six detained journalists to be questioned after five days of enforced disappearance. Prosecutors told the EIPR lawyer that the remaining five would be questioned later on Sunday.

Responding to an earlier request from EIPR’s defense team, prosecutors notified the organization on Saturday night that Abu Emeira had been brought in for questioning. An EIPR lawyer attended the interrogation, which began at 10 p.m. and continued until 8 a.m. on Sunday.

Abu Emeira faces charges of joining a “terrorist” group, spreading false news and using a social media site for that purpose in Supreme State Security Case No. 8083 of 2026. Prosecutors’ questions focused exclusively on material published by Matsadaash, how topics and sources were selected, and the purpose of publication.

The interrogation also established that Abu Emeira had been held at a National Security Agency facility under a detention order issued under the Counterterrorism Law, which allows suspects to be held beyond the usual 48-hour limit before being brought before prosecutors for questioning. However, the Interior Ministry violated that same law by preventing him from informing his family and lawyer of his whereabouts.

At the end of the interrogation, Abu Emeira told prosecutors that he has several chronic illnesses. They allowed him access to his medication, while the EIPR lawyer requested that he be examined at a hospital.

Abu Emeira’s appearance followed repeated attempts by lawyers and families to establish the six journalists’ whereabouts. On Saturday, EIPR filed complaint No. 115786 of 2026 with the public prosecutor, seeking an investigation into the circumstances of their arrests. Security forces had refused to show the journalists or their families the warrants authorizing their arrests, and none had been brought before prosecutors when the complaint was filed.

The complaint brought the total number of submissions seeking disclosure of the journalists’ whereabouts to 18. Their families had already sent 17 telegrams to the public prosecutor, the senior attorney general overseeing the Supreme State Security Prosecution and the interior minister. None of the families received a response during the five days of disappearance.

The families’ anxiety had been compounded by a false Al-Masry Al-Youm report on Thursday asserting that the Supreme State Security Prosecution had already questioned all six journalists and ordered their detention for 15 days. Prosecutors denied the report to EIPR’s defense team at the time, but the journalists’ whereabouts remained unknown for the following three days.

EIPR stresses that the six journalists — Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Abdallah Qadry, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Adel and Mohamed Mahmoud — are known across the region for their professional and accurate work. None had previously been summoned for questioning over their work at Matsadaash.

EIPR calls on the public prosecutor to drop all charges against Abu Emeira and his colleagues for lack of evidence, close the cases against them and order their immediate release. The six journalists have committed no crime; they have simply carried out their journalistic work professionally. Their continued detention constitutes an attack on freedom of the press.