In his speech at an iftar feast, the Turkish president touched upon the issue of Ahmed Mansour, an Al Jazeera reporter who had been detained in Germany, Anadolu agency reported.
President Erdogan mocked the West, saying it has difficulty passing tests on protecting democracy, human rights and human dignity in recent years. He said there are some rights western countries consider to be necessary for their citizens but when it comes to citizens of Muslims countries whose rights are violated they deem the same rights unnecessary. According to the Turkish president, the Al Jazeera journalist’s detention at the Berlin airport at the request of Egyptian authorities is Germany’s violation of freedom of speech in return of material interest.
"European states, which leave Turkey alone in fighting terrorism and condone terrorist organization members, unfortunately behaves very differently over a request by coup stagers," he said. Erdogan said an EU state, which failed to act when Ankara provided documents on thousands of outlawed PKK members who were freely operating in its borders, saw no harm in detaining a senior journalist from Al Jazeera. "Why? Because Egyptian generals ordered so. Why? Egypt gave a 8.5 billion Euro order," said Erdogan.
Erdogan said that German government`s step against freedom of thought and expression wouldn’t be forgiven.
Al-Jazeera channel called the German government for immediate release of journalist Ahmed Mansour. The TV channel said that Ahmed Mansour is one of the Arab world`s most respected journalists and must be released immediately.
Egypt’s Attorney General Hisham Barakat has demanded German and Interpol officials extradite Mansour to Egypt. Mansour was indicted for allegedly torturing a lawyer in Tahrir Square in 2011 and was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison by an Egyptian court in 2014. Al Jazeera leadership said Ahmed Mansour is innocent and regards the Egyptian court’s judgment as an attempt to silence journalists.
Having phone conversation with his colleagues, the journalist said that German court will pass a judgment on his fate today.
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