Egypt military summons journalists over torture claim

Military prosecutors have summoned a newspaper editor and a journalist over comments in an article on torture attributed to a military official, a military source and the paper's editor said on Saturday. Journalist Adel Hammuda and editor Rasha Azab from the independent weekly Al-Fagr will appear before the prosecutor on Sunday. Azab told AFP that the article in question contained first-hand accounts from people claiming they had been tortured by the military. The military source said the prosecutor wanted to "hear" the editor and journalist "about the claims published in the newspaper and comments attributed to one of the commanders of the armed forces." Several journalists have been interrogated by the army recently over their work, prompting the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to say Egypt's military is censoring and harassing the press. "The military, and particularly the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces continues to employ censorship, intimidation, and politicised legal proceedings to cow critical journalists into silence," it said in a June 3 statement. It came after prosecutors questioned a newspaper editor and a journalist over a report alleging Egypt's military would back an Islamist group in elections. The military has denied that it censors the media. Power was transferred to the armed forces by former president Hosni Mubarak upon his ouster on February 11 after mass protests against his 30-year rule.