Germany has arrested a prominent journalist from the pan-Arabic Al Jazeera network on an Egyptian warrant.
The Qatar-based broadcaster said Ahmed Mansour, a senior reporter with its Arabic service, was detained Saturday at an airport in Berlin while trying to board a plane for Doha.
A German police spokesman later acknowledged the arrest of the 52-year-old Egyptian-British journalist. German prosecutors were expected to review the detention by early Sunday.
The network's website also said an Egyptian court last year sentenced Mansour in absentia to a 15-year prison term "for torturing a lawyer in 2011 in [Cairo's] Tahrir Square." That location was the epicenter of an anti-government uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.
Mansour, who hosts a popular network news program, recently interviewed the chief of al-Qaida's Syria affiliate, the al-Nusra Front.
In a statement Saturday, the network's acting director, General Mostefa Souag, called for Mansour's immediate release.
Three Al Jazeera journalists, including a Canadian and an Australian, were arrested in 2013 in Egypt and sentenced to up to 10 years in prison on charges of supporting Egypt's Islamist-leaning Muslim Brotherhood.
Australian Peter Greste has since been released, while the other two are awaiting retrial.
