CAIRO — Soldiers killed an Egyptian journalist working for the country’s state-run flagship daily newspaper at a military checkpoint, security officials said Tuesday.
Tamer Abdel-Raouf’s death brings to five the number of journalists who have died in the past week of violence in Egypt.
The military initially said that Abdel-Raouf from the Al-Ahram newspaper sped through a checkpoint Monday evening after a nighttime curfew began, and that soldiers fired warning shots before shooting at the car. It said the military did not deliberately shoot to kill.
However, Shaimaa Abu Elkhir of the Committee to Protect Journalists quoted a witness who was in the car with Abdel-Raouf as saying there were no warning shots and the incident took place an hour before the 7 p.m. start of the military-imposed curfew on Monday.
Hamed al-Barbari of Al-Gomhuria newspaper told the media watchdog group that they were turned back by soldiers at the checkpoint and told they could not pass. The soldiers then fired at the car as they were making a U-turn, al-Barbari said. Abdel-Raouf was shot in the head and the car then hit a light post. Al-Barbari was injured in the collision, according to CPJ.
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