Under Egyptian procedure and following last week’s court order, Mahmoud Hussein had been transferred from prison to a police jail to await his release. But his lawyer, Gama Eid, said that instead of being freed, Hussein was apparently ordered detained again in a separate case.
Eid did not know what the new charges against the journalist were, saying authorities did not notify him or Hussein’s family.
Hussein’s family said in a statement Tuesday the new case dates from last year, when he was already in detention.
Doha-based Al-Jazeera reported the rearrest of Hussein on its website Tuesday, citing his family.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which oversees police, did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Hussein, an Egyptian working for the Qatar-based satellite network, was detained at the Cairo airport in December 2016, when he arrived on a family vacation from Doha.
Since the 2013 ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi amid mass protests against his one year rule, the Al-Jazeera network has been portrayed as Egypt’s national enemy for its sympathy toward Islamists, especially the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
Al-Jazeera’s news website has been blocked since 2017, along with dozens of other news sites deemed too critical of the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
Since his assent to power, el-Sissi has waged an unprecedented crackdown on dissent, arresting thousands – mostly Islamists but also prominent secular activists and journalists – and rolling back freedoms won after the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Hosni Mubarak.