MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Ahmed Mansour, a senior journalist working for the channel’s Arabic service, was detained by German police on Saturday in Berlin's Tegel airport as he tried to board a flight to Qatar.
“Ahmed Mansour is one of the Arab world's most respected journalists and must be released immediately," Al Jazeera Director General Mostefa Souag said in a statement published on the English-language website of the network.
In his statement Souag condemned the Egyptian authorities for what he called "media oppression."
“Other countries must not allow themselves to be tools of this media oppression, least of all those that respect freedom of the media as does Germany," he added.
Mansour told Al Jazeera in a phone call that he would remain in custody until Monday when he appeared before a German judge, according to the statement.
According to Al Jazeera, international police body Interpol previously rejected the Egyptian arrest warrant as it did not meet its rules.
Relations between Doha and Cairo have been long strained as Qatar supports the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement of Egypt's former president Mohamed Morsi, deposed by current leadership in 2013.
A year ago, three Al Jazeera journalists were sentenced to prison terms of between seven and ten years on charges of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood group and reporting false news.
