Syria propaganda
Five people arrested in Port Said, Egypt for taking this picture and others. Egyptian Ministry of Interior

Egyptian police have arrested four men and one woman for allegedly filming staged propaganda purporting to be from Syria.

Videos and images released by Egypt's Ministry of Interior (MOI), which oversees law enforcement, showed a young girl in a white dress, holding a teddy bear, covered in what is seemingly fake blood.

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The images were taken outside dilapidated buildings that resembled Aleppo, but were in fact in Port Said, near the Suez Canal, according to the MOI.

In a statement translated from Arabic, a spokesman for the MOI said the five were arrested for "fabricating the scene of a child photographed while wearing a white dress coloured in red, in a way that resembles blood.

"A gauze on her hand was also contaminated with the same colour as was a bear."

The statement added that the five "filmed those scenes to be published on the pages of social networking sites to convince viewers that those pictures are the outcome of the ongoing events in the city of Aleppo, in the state of Syria".

In addition to the five arrested on Monday (19 December), two children aged eight and 12 were taken into police care.

Police also seized a camera, six mobile phones and a plastic box containing a number of "props" for the images.

All five people have been released on police bail, pending investigations, and their links to any external organisations are not yet known.

Propaganda has been a growing tool for all sides within the proxy war in Syria.

The charge has largely been levelled against Syrian and Russian presidents Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin, however Western-backed agencies have also been accused.

Journalists and activists have speculated as to whether The White Helmets, the UK-backed humanitarian group, has been involved in propaganda due to its links to its links to public relations firms Avaaz and Purpose.

The group often posts dramatic images of rescues it undertakes and recently released a Netflix documentary showing such missions.

Similar accusations have also been made against seven-year-old Bana al-Abed for her tweets from eastern Aleppo, however the claim has not been proven.

In a separate investigation earlier this year, The Bureau of Investigative Journalists revealed that British PR firm Bell Pottinger was paid $540m (£417m) by the US Department of Defense to make fake terror and news-style videos.

صرح مسئول مركز الإعلام الأمنى بأنه فى ضوء إضطلاع الإدارة العامة لتأمين محور قناة السويس بتشديد الرقابة وإحكام السيطرة على المناطق المتاخمة للمجرى الملاحى لقناة السويس.. وفى ضوء التنسيق مع الجهات المعنية فقد ضبطت الإدارة كلٍ من:- 1. المدعوة/ سحر م . ع مواليد 1972 ومقيمة بورسعيد. 2. المدعو/ سياف أ. إ مواليد 1994ومقيم بورسعيد. 3. المدعو/ محمد ح . م مواليد 1994 ومقيم بورسعيد. 4. المدعو/ مصطفى أ. م سن 25 مقيم بورسعيد . 5. المدعو/ مصطفى أ.ع. سن 21 مصور فوتوغرافى، ومقيم بورسعيد. وبرفقتهم الطفلين (رغد ا.أ سن 12 ، سيف ا.أ سن 8) أبناء الأولى.. وذلك حال قيام الأخير بإفتعال مشهد للطفلة المذكورة وتصويرها أثناء إرتدائها فستان أبيض ملوث باللون " الأحمر "مشابة للدم وبيدها "شاش" ملوث بنفس اللون ودمية صغيرة ملوثة بنفس اللون ويظهر بخلفية المشهد أطلال منزل متهدم سابق صدور قرار إزالة بشأنه. بمناقشتهم عن أبعاد مسلكهم أفادوا بقيامهم بتصوير تلك المشاهد لنشرها على صفحات مواقع التواصل الإجتماعى لإيهام مشاهديها بأن تلك الصور محصله الأحداث الجارية فى مدينة حلب بدولة سوريا .. وضبط بحوزتهم كاميرا تصوير وعدد (6) تليفون محمول وعلبة بلاسيتيكة بداخلها المادة الحمراء المستخدمة فى تلك المشاهد. تم إتخاذ الإجراءات القانونية وبالعرض على النيابة العامة قررت حبس الأخير القائم على عملية التصوير أربعة أيام على ذمة التحقيق ، وإخلاء سبيل باقى المتهمين بضمان مالى .. وتسليم الطفلة إلى ولى أمرها بعد أخذ التعهد عليه بحسن رعايتها.

Posted by ‎الصفحة الرسمية لوزارة الداخلية‎ on Monday, December 19, 2016