Ismail ALEXANDRANI

Photo Credit: Mahienour El-Massry

Writer, journalist and researcher Ismail Alexandrani remained in pre-trial detention at the end of the year He was arrested on 24 September 2025 at a security checkpoint in Matruh governorate and is  facing charges brought by the SSSP in Cairo to face charges of ‘joining a terrorist group,’ ‘disseminating false news,’ and ‘using an online platform to spread terrorist ideas’ in relation to 17 of his  Facebook posts.  

 Alexandrani served a seven-year prison term between 2015 and 2022 for ‘leaking military secrets’ and ‘membership of a terrorist group’ following a grossly unfair trial, according to information received by PEN International and was subjected to harassment in connection with his work (See Case Lists 2015 -  2025). PEN International has consistently campaigned for his release and an end to the harassment.  

Ismail Alexandrani, an award-winning writer, investigative journalist and socio-political researcher, has worked with several research centres, including the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights and the Arab Reform Initiative, and is best known for his research and writings on militant groups operating in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. His work has been published in various regional and international media, as well as academic journals, including the independent Lebanese newspapers Assafir and al-Modon, and the American Arab Studies Journal Jadaliyya. He contributed to the book Egypt beyond Tahrir Square (Indiana University Press, 2016). Alexandrani was awarded the 2015 Visiting Arab Journalist Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In 2014, he won the Open Eye - Hany Darweesh Award for Exceptional Essay. In 2009, he was one of the global winners in the World Youth Movement for Democracy’s Youth Essay Contest on Democracy, and the winner of the National Contest for Spreading Understanding and Mutual Respect at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.