Egypt detains economic expert over criticising of government

Egypt has detained economic expert Abdel-Khaliq Farouq after he published a book analysing the economic and social situation in the country, Arabi21 reported yesterday.

Last week, Egyptian security collected the book, entitled “Is Egypt really a poor country?”, from shelves and detained the publisher.

Lawyer Jamal Eid, the director of Arab Information and Human Rights Network, said yesterday: “He [Farouq] was detained and he is to appear in the state security court tomorrow because of his book.”

He added: “He will be informed about his charges on Monday,” stating that he was told “verbally” that he was arrested because of his book.

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