Egypt’s prosecutors have charged four journalists from one of the country’s few remaining independent news outlets of spreading false news and disturbing public peace.

CAIRO The Egyptian government has arrested at least 10 journalists since the coronavirus was detected in the country, a local human rights group said, accusing authorities of seizing on the pandemic to accelerate a long-running campaign against dissent. Egypts public prosecution released a postmortem report saying he mistakenly poisoned himself by drinking hand sanitizer in his cell. The rights group outlined cases of 10 journalists recently caught up in President Abdel Fattah el-Sissis sweeping crackdown on the press. Earlier this week, security forces detained Lina Attalah, the editor of Egypts most prominent investigative media outlet when she was conducting an interview. Journalist and photographer Sameh Hanin, the group said, was also arrested this week and accused of helping a terrorist group, a frequent charge leveled at all sorts of critics of el-Sissis government.