CAIRO – Egypt has released Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein after more than four years in detention on accusations of publishing false news, a security source said today.
Hussein, an Egyptian national held under preventive detention since December 2016, was released from jail last night, said the source, without giving further details.
Al Jazeera – which has run a daily campaign for his liberation – did not immediately confirm his release, but has repeatedly said he was being held without formal charges, a trial or conviction.
Gamal Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, confirmed to AFP that a decision was taken by authorities to release Hussein, adding, however, that “he has still not returned home”.
Civil society group Egyptian Observatory for Journalism and Media, in a post on its Facebook page, said a Cairo criminal court decided on Monday to free Hussein.
There had been repeated calls for his release, including from human rights watchdog Amnesty International, after a Cairo prosecutor in May 2019 ordered his release from jail.
But just a week later, Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution slapped him with another set of charges and reordered his detention.
Hussein’s reported release comes weeks after Egypt said it agreed to restore ties with Qatar, shortly after the end of a three-year Saudi-led freeze on relations with Doha.
Gulf powerhouse Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, cut ties and transport links with Qatar in June 2017, alleging that it backed radical Islamist groups and was too close to Riyadh’s rival Iran – claims that Doha denied.
Ties were restored following a Gulf regional summit early last month.
Al Jazeera was caught in a political rift between Cairo and Doha following the 2013 military ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, who was backed by Qatar.
Cairo considered the news outlet a mouthpiece for Morsi’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and access to its website has been blocked in Egypt since 2017.
Shortly after Morsi’s ouster, authorities arrested three Al Jazeera journalists, including an Egyptian-Canadian and an Australian, provoking wide international condemnation.
The three, who faced accusations similar to those levelled at Hussein, were freed in 2015.
Australian Peter Greste was deported, and the two others released after receiving pardons from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Rights groups regularly accuse Sisi’s regime of crushing all forms of dissent and repressing political opponents.
Under his rule, authorities have jailed thousands of Morsi’s Islamist supporters, as well as liberal and secular activists, including popular bloggers, actors, singers and journalists. – AFP, February 5, 2021
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