“To put in police custody a journalist for doing her job, moreover for revealing information of public interest, could be a threat to freedom of the press and confidentiality of sources.”
Lavrilleux is reportedly being questioned by police officers from the French intelligence service - the General Directorate for Internal Security, or DGSI.
Her 2021 report used leaked classified documents to allege that Egyptian authorities used French intelligence to bomb and kill smugglers on the Egyptian-Libyan border between 2016 and 2018.
At the time of publication, Disclose acknowledged that the report included national security secrets but said that it was sharing them “in the name of a fundamental principle of democracy: the right to information”.
After the articles were published, France’s armed forces ministry filed a legal complaint for “violation of national defence secrets”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for Ms Lavrilleux’s release, asked that all criminal investigations against her are dropped and said police should refrain from questioning her over her sources.
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