German court jails Al Jazeera journalist ahead of hearing

A German court on Sunday temporarily jailed a senior Al Jazeera Arabic TV journalist who was earlier detained at an airport in German capital Berlin at the request of Egypt, his lawyer said. 

Fazli Altin, a member of the legal team representing journalist Ahmed Mansour, said on Sunday the court ruled that his client be held behind bars while an investigation looks into what would happen to him when he was extradited to Egypt.

In his remarks to press members, Altin said this ruling was favourable even though it looked otherwise, adding that Mansour would be transferred to a prison in Moabit neighborhood in Berlin.

The lawyer said they expected Mansour's release to take place following the investigation on Monday.

Egypt's Attorney General Hisham Barakat has demanded German and Interpol officials extradite Mansour to Egypt.

Cairo judicial sources said Barakat sent a written message to the Egyptian embassy in Berlin and Interpol via the Egyptian Interior Ministry's international cooperation office, calling for Mansour's extradition.

The same sources said Barakat had prepared the procedures necessary to extradite Mansour according to international agreements and the principle of reciprocity.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan interpreted the decision to arrest Mansour as a case of vested interest.

"European states, which leave Turkey alone in fighting terrorism and condone terrorist organisation members, unfortunately behave very differently over a request by coup stagers,” he said on Sunday.

Erdogan said an EU state, which failed to act when Ankara provided documents on thousands of outlawed PKK members who were freely operating in its borders, saw no harm in detaining a senior journalist from Al Jazeera.

"Why? Because Egyptian generals ordered so. Why? [Egypt] gave a 8.5 billion euro order," said Erdogan.

In early June, during a visit to Berlin by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt awarded Germany’s technology giant Siemens 8 billion euros worth of contracts to build natural gas and wind power plants.

Mansour was indicted for allegedly torturing a lawyer in 2011 and was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison by an Egyptian court in 2014. He denies the allegations.

Mansour, who has both Egyptian and British citizenship, was arrested at Tegel Airport as he was heading to Qatar, Al Jazeera said.

The incident comes two weeks later after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s visit to Germany.

The Egyptian government accuses Al Jazeera of bias in favor of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group - an allegation the channel denies - amid tensions with Doha over Qatar’s criticism of Morsi's 2013 overthrow and imprisonment by the army.

In December 2013, three Al Jazeera journalists were arrested in a Cairo hotel only days after Egyptian authorities branded the Muslim Brotherhood - of which Morsi was a leading member - a "terrorist" group.

The three journalists were all slapped with jail terms ranging from seven to 10 years after being convicted of "broadcasting false news" and "threatening Egypt's national security".

Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were released on bail and are to be retried. Peter Greste, Australian, was deported in February.

Fahmy, who holds dual Egyptian-Canadian citizenship, voluntarily gave up his Egyptian nationality in February in order to qualify for a recently issued presidential decree allowing for the deportation of foreigners convicted in Egyptian courts.