Egyptian security forces arrest six members of Muslim Brotherhood propaganda network

Egyptian security mechanisms raided targets in Cairo, Port Said and El-Gharbiya Governorate this week and arrested six media activists from the Mtasdesh platform, which according to the Egyptian Interior Ministry operated as a propaganda arm of the terrorist organization Muslim Brotherhood funded by foreign sources.

According to the statement of the Egyptian Interior Ministry, the six served as part of a secret 'media committee' that operated without a license, received funding from foreign sources and spread fabricated news and hostile propaganda designed to harm the country's security and regime stability. The arrests were reported today by the Associated Press.

The operation began Monday night and expanded to multiple governorates. The detainees are Abdullah Qadri, Muhammad Abu Amira, Omar Hilal, Islam Barkat, Muhammad Mahmoud and Muhammad Adel, and computers, communications equipment and mobile phones were seized during the raids.

According to the Interior Ministry, the platform presented itself as a fact-checking website but was operated from abroad by Abdel-Rahman Mansour, a Muslim Brotherhood activist who fled Egyptian law. The ministry emphasized that only one of the six detainees is registered with the Egyptian Journalists Association.

Mansour, who remains beyond the reach of Egyptian security forces, claimed it was an attack on journalistic activity. Egypt has been combating the organization's infrastructure since the ouster of Muhammad Morsi in 2013 and the designation of the movement as a terrorist organization.