Satirical Egyptian cartoonist arrested at home: press union

Egyptian authorities arrested cartoonist Ashraf Omar at his Cairo home early on Monday after he drew a series of satirical images, the publication he works with and Egypt's press union said.

Omar's wife, who was not at their western Cairo home at the time, said security cameras showed a group of men leading a blindfolded Omar into a vehicle in the middle of the night, according to a statement from independent news website Al-Manassa.

It is the second such arrest this month after journalist Khaled Mamdouh was apprehended at home on July 16 and kept in an unknown location before reappearing before state security prosecutors on Sunday, according to Egypt's press union.

Union chief Khaled al-Balshy said there were more than 23 journalists behind bars in Egypt and called for their release.

The union "condemns the arrest of our colleague Ashraf Omar" and "demands his place of detention be revealed and his immediate release", Balshy said in a statement, adding he had filed a report with the public prosecutor.

In the past month, Omar, who also works as a translator, had drawn several satirical cartoons poking fun at Egypt's electricity crisis, debt-fuelled economic policies and plans to sell state assets to wealthy Gulf investors.

Balshy said the union was in "full solidarity" with Omar, and that he had "a fundamental right as a journalist to express citizens' suffering through his drawings".

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranks Egypt 170th out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index.

Amid international criticism of its human rights record, Cairo has in the last two years pardoned hundreds of political prisoners.

However, rights groups say that at least three times as many have been arrested over the same time period.