The unprecedented move adds to the pressure exerted on Disclose. The Justice Ministry has called for our series of articles called Egypt Papers to be censored together with the documentary broadcast on France 2 TV programme Complément d’Enquête in late 2021 and still freely accessible. The appeal, lodged on 20 May by a prosecutor in the Paris Court of Appeal, is aimed at burying information in the public interest about France’s complicity in the killings of civilians in Egypt, including through a military intelligence operation classified as a top secret defence matter, Operation Sirli.

And there is more to come.

The prosecutor, appointed by the president of the Republic based on a proposal from the justice minister, has called for Ariane Lavrilleux to be indicted, although our reporter was cleared of all charges. She was prosecuted for “appropriation and disclosure of a national defence secret”. Her flat was searched, she spent 39 hours in police custody and her every move was tracked for weeks.

The Justice Ministry has also called for the other journalists who worked on the investigation to appear before a judge.

Reporters Without Borders (RWB) has condemned “legal harrassment which shows that journalism is being criminalised, a worrying trend”. RWB France’s Laure Chauvel says that “defence secrecy rules should not be used to trample on press freedom and protection of sources, or to undermine the concept of public interest”.

This latest assault on our right to inform you freely cannot be allowed to succeed. Our lawyer, Christophe Bigot, restated before the Court of Appeal that it should confirm that all charges have been dropped and that access to information is protected. The investigatory chamber ruling is expected on 8 July 2026.

Timeline: Five years of legal proceedings against Disclose

7 December 2020: Disclose publishes a secret memo revealing the French government’s strategy to prevent greater democratic control of arms sales.

3 February 2021: The prosecution opens an inquiry led by domestic intelligence service DGSI.

21 November 2021: Disclose publishes the Egypt Papers investigation, documenting a campaign of arbitrary executions of civilians in Egypt with complicity from the French state.

24 November 2021: The Armed Forces Ministry files a complaint for “violation of national defence secrecy”.

21 July 2022: The Paris director of public prosecution opens an inquiry led by two antiterrorism judges.

2023: Reporter Ariane Lavrilleux, who worked with other journalists on the Egypt Papers investigation, is placed under surveillance. Intelligence officers bug her phone and shadow her.

19 September 2023: Police search Lavrilleux’s home and check her computers, mobile phones and notebooks. She is held for 39 hours in police custody. 

9 October 2025: Following a three-year inquiry, charges against Lavrilleux are dropped. The case file acknowledges that the information published by Disclose is a matter of general interest.

25 October 2025: The Paris director of public prosecution lodges an appeal against the Court’s dismissal of the case.

20 May 2026: The Prosecution Office requests the reopening of the judicial inquiry, the indictment of Ariane Lavrilleux, the censorship of our articles and videos as well as the summons of the other journalists who worked on the investigation.

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Disclose’s team