In a move that seems very confusing to most liberals, the German government has arrested an Al-Jazeera journalist of Egyptian descent due to an international arrest warrant placed on him by Egypt.

Ahmed Mansour was tried by an Egyptian court in absentia last year, sentenced to 15 years in prison. He has continued his work with Al-Jazeera since, but was arrested whilst attempting to board a flight from Berlin to Qatar.

Egypt has always had a problem with how the world’s largest Arabic news channel portrayed them, and has had many spats in the past with their journalists.

Al Jazeera released a statement calling for the immediate release of their journalist:

“The crackdown on journalists by Egyptian authorities is well known. Our network, as the Arab world’s most-watched, has taken the brunt of this.
“Other countries must not allow themselves to be tools of this media oppression, least of all those that respect freedom of the media as does Germany.”

“Ahmed Mansour is one of the Arab world’s most respected journalists and must be released immediately.”

Mansour would be taken before a German judge on Monday to determine his eventual fate.