The Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Egypt, Hussein Abdel-Ghani, said the footage was "reconstruction" which Matwali intended to use in a documentary film about torture in Egypt.
Reconstructing scenes with actors "is a well-known method in the production of documentaries, and Al-Jazeera is not the only network to talk about torture," Abdel-Ghani said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/egypt_journalist_detained