AN EGYPTIAN journalist known for his criticism of the government said today that police raided his parents’ house the previous night and arrested his brother.

Mohamed el-Garhy tweeted that the police came to the home of his parents in a village north-east of Cairo and asked his father for the journalist’s whereabouts. When they were told that he was in the city, the police woke up his brother and took him instead.

“My brother Yasser has never been interested in politics and has not done anything wrong,” Mr el-Garhy wrote, sarcastically thanking Egyptian authorities for the “maltreatment and humiliation.”

Mr el-Garhy said that his brother’s whereabouts are not known and there has been no statement from the police.

In recent years, authorities have jailed dozens of Egyptian reporters and occasionally expelled some foreign journalists from the country. When police fail to find a wanted suspect, family members and relatives have occasionally been arrested instead.