Four staff members of Turkey's official Anadolu Agency have been arrested and taken to an unknown location by Egyptian police in a raid on the news agency's Cairo office.
Police officers stormed the office Tuesday evening, cutting off security cameras and the internet connection and searched the office on early Wednesday. Officers also confiscated the passports, cellphones and computers of staff. The officers involved refused to disclose the reason for the raid to a lawyer working for the agency.
A female Egyptian journalist who was at the office was released at midnight, while four others were taken to an unknown location Wednesday morning.
The detained staff members include Hilmi Balcı, a Turkish national who is in charge of the office’s finance and administrative affairs department, and Egyptian citizens Hussein al-Qabbani, Hussein al-Abbas and Abdelselam Muhammad, who is an employee of the Turkey-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA).
Kemalettin Eruygur, charge d’affaires for Turkey in Cairo, contacted the Egyptian Foreign Ministry about the issue while Egypt's charge d'affaires in Ankara was summoned by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Daily Sabah reported.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the detentions were "without reason" and constituted "an act of harassment and intimidation against the Turkish media." The ministry "strongly condemned" the incident.
