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Egyptian Journalists Assaulted by Anti-Sisi Protesters in New York

September 29, 2015
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi with radio and television presenter Youssef Al Hossainy meeting in New York City
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi with radio and television presenter Youssef Al Hossainy meeting in New York City

Videos that have gone viral since being posted on Monday show Muslim Brotherhood supporters verbally and physically assaulting several Egyptian journalists in New York City.

The videos show the harassers in a physical altercation with media personalities Youssef Al Hosseiny and Mohammed Sherdy, as well as Wael El Ebrashy, calling out, “Here is Egypt’s dirty media” and using profane insults against them.

Al Hosseiny and Sherdy were together, while El Ebrashy appeared to be alone during the assault.   Al Hosseiny and Sherdy engaged in a back-and-forth with the harassers and the video shows Al Hosseiny spitting on one of the harassers, whom he later identified as Said Abbasy. Al Hosseiny tweeted that he and Sherdy were pressing charges against the harassers for “verbal assaults and death threats.” In a Skype interview with television channel Al Sharq, Abbasy later clarified that the New York Police Department detained him for two hours and then released him.   

The tweet reads: “Mohamed Sherdy and I are in a New York police car to report the verbal assault and threats to kill [us] and bomb #President #Sisi’s residence #LongLiveEgypt #Egypt.”

Sherdy later posted a status via his Facebook account stating that he is “proud” to be considered one of the reasons for the Muslim Brotherhood’s “failure” in Egypt, and that he and Al Hosseiny had every right to use profanity while defending themselves.

One day prior to the video of Sherdy and Al Hossainy’s altercation with the Abbasy and the other harassers, Al Hossainy tweeted that 20 Muslim Brotherhood supporters were protesting against President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in front of his residence in New York. It remains unclear whether the two incidents occurred on the same day.

The journalists are in New York as part of the Egyptian media delegation accompanying Sisi as he attends the 70th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly.

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