Egyptian security forces have detained prominent economist and journalist Abdel Khalek Farouk, the Egyptian Network for Human Rights reported.

Farooq, 67, was arrested on Sunday evening and taken to an undisclosed location. According to his wife, the economist was denied medication and his family was not informed of the reasons for his arrest. His electronic devices and other personal belongings were also confiscated by authorities.

Farooq was previously detained for four days in October 2018 pending investigation into allegations of spreading fake news in his book. Is Egypt really a poor country?, which criticized the government’s economic policies and the power of the military since 1952.

“The arrest of Dr. Abdel Khalek is a concrete and real application of the Egyptian authorities’ policy of suppressing dissent, a practice they have widely adopted for many years,” Ahmed el-Attar, executive director of ENHR, told MEE.

“He has a genuine national vision for economic reform, and so his arrest sends a message that no voice can be raised above that of a president and government that tolerates no criticism and views anyone who disagrees with their views and actions as opponents. ”

Since 2018, when Egypt’s parliament passed a sweeping law criminalizing the spread of “false news” for those with more than 5,000 social media followers, security forces have jailed scores of bloggers and journalists on this charge, and more than 500 web sites were blocked.

The law does not define what constitutes “false news.”

In July, security forces detained two journalists in less than a week: Ashraf Omar, a cartoonist and satirist for the independent news agency Al-Manassa, and Khaled Mamdouh, a journalist for the news website Arab Post.

In early September, Omar’s detention was extended by 15 days for the fourth time pending an investigation into charges of membership in a “terrorist group,” “spreading false news and misuse of social media tools.”

According to Reporters Without Borders, 18 journalists remain in prison in Egypt. The media watchdog ranked Egypt 170th out of 180 countries in its world press freedom index.