Journalists Syndicate head is ‘shocked’ at Ramadan’s jailing

CAIRO – 5 March 2018: Head of the Journalists Syndicate Abdel Mohsen Salama said that he is shocked at the Egyptian Attorney General decision on Sunday, March 4 to keep TV host Khairy Ramadan in custody for four days pending investigations over allegations of insulting police officers and spreading lies.

“I’m shocked. We will appeal to the attorney general’s office decision. This is a ‘public opinion case’. Ramadan’s intentions were completely good and innocent; he didn’t mean to insult nobody,” Salama said during statements to al-Nahar privately-owned channel.

He added that he discussed the whole incident with the interior minister and that he explained many things to him. “With all my respect to the Egyptian judiciary and prosecution, I’m shocked at these decisions and there are many legal procedures that we will take to appeal the decision. Ramadan's intentions were good and all of us are defending our country.”

On Sunday night, Cairo Attorney General’s office decided to have Ramadan remanded in custody for four days pending investigations into the latter’s alleged insults against police forces in Egypt.

Ramadan, who was celebrating launching his new pro-government talk show named ‘Misr al Naharda’ (Egypt Today) through Egypt's state news television building, Maspero, on February 18 with his co-host Rasha Nabil, told the story of a woman who had sent him a message, complaining about their difficult economic life conditions. According to his statements, the message was: “I am the wife of a police officer, and my life is [being] ruined.”

“This is not just a one-officer problem, but it’s a general issue all police officers struggle with,” Ramadan said. He added that after reading the letter, he asked to meet her, which happened later.

During their meeting, the anonymous wife told Ramadan details about her social life conditions, which other officers felt embarrassed about her revealing them. “She took a lot of time to start talking to me, but later she said that they had to move their two children from a private school to a public one because of the high expenses,” Ramadan said.

Revealing many details of the story put Ramadan in hot water, facing a wave of anger from the interior ministry and police officers families who issued a formal complaint against him.