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Imprisoned Egyptian Photojournalist Shawkan Awarded the Press Freedom Award

Mahmoud Abou-Zeid (a.k.a. Shawkan) is one of four journalists named by the Committee to Protect Journalists to be awarded the Press Freedom Award.

Staff Writer

Imprisoned Egyptian Photojournalist Shawkan Awarded the Press Freedom Award

Egyptian Journalist Mahmoud Abou-Zeid (also known as Shawkan) is going to be awarded the Press Freedom Award, reports Ahram Online. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced on its website that Egyptian Shawkan, Malini Subramaniam from India, Can Dündar from Turkey, and Óscar Martínez from El Salvador were named as recipients of the award.

The 28-year-old photojournalist was arrested in 2013 while covering the Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in dispersal and has been detained ever since. Sahwkan’s case was set to go to trial in December 2015 but the court has yet to reach a verdict.       

Shawkan suffers from Hepatitis C and hasn’t been receiving proper treatment for it, according to his lawyers.

In a letter he penned in April 2015, Shawkan writes: "I am neither a supporter nor an opponent of anybody. I don't care about anything except my professional work as a photojournalist."

“I don’t know what is going on,” the letter reads, “I have been left here to rot without any logic.”

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