The International Press Institute (IPI) today called on Egypt to release an Al Jazeera journalist who was detained on Dec. 20 when he entered the country on holiday and urged authorities not to extend his detention for a third time tomorrow.

Egypt’s government accuses Mahmoud Hussein, a Doha-based Egyptian national with more than two decades of experience as a journalist, of “incitement against state institutions and broadcasting false news with the aim of spreading chaos” – a claim his employer emphatically rejects.

The journalist, who joined Al Jazeera in 2011 and moved to Doha in 2013, was detained when he arrived at Cairo’s international airport. Authorities extended his detention by 15 days on Jan. 4, just ahead of its expiration, and then again on Jan. 19.

Following Hussein’s detention, security officials released a video in which he made statements against Al Jazeera, but the network maintains that the alleged confession was made under duress. His attorneys have accused Egyptian officials of denying him access to counsel and his family, and Hussein also has reportedly complained of mistreatment and inhumane conditions.

IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis called on Egyptian authorities to allow Hussein’s current detention period to expire tomorrow and to set him free.

“Egypt’s people have suffered decades of abuses and denials of human rights under various governments, but the situation has worsened under the current regime,” he said. “The country has detained scores of journalists in recent years, many on at-best flimsy charges, as authorities have waged a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent that has taken a harsh toll on journalists with the courage to openly state facts or ideas that the government would rather not be heard.

“That said, the ongoing imprisonment of a journalist who, by all accounts, was not even on assignment and was only in the country to visit his family is a troubling new development. Mr. Hussein appears to be the latest in a long line of journalists imprisoned in Egypt for political reasons. Egypt’s government should either provide clear and compelling evidence linking him to the commission of a real crime or release him immediately – a demand we reiterate in the case of every journalist currently languishing in an Egyptian prison – and it should take real steps to honour the guarantees of press freedom and free expression enshrined in the country’s Constitution.”