A picture taken on June 23, 2014 at the police institute near Cairo’s Tora prison, shows Al Jazeera news channel’s Australian journalist Peter Greste, left, and his colleagues, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, centre, and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, listening to the verdict inside the defendants’ cage during their trial.
Al Jazeera yesterday demanded the release of its remaining two jailed journalists after Peter Greste, an Australian working for the Doha-based TV network, was freed after 400 days in detention by Egyptian authorities.
Doha-based Al Jazeera said the campaign to free its journalists in Egypt would not end until all three had been released.
“Peter Greste is on his way out of the country after 400 days in detention, but Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy remain behind bars. All three have to be exonerated, and the convictions against its other journalists tried in absentia also have to be lifted” the network said in a release.
Mostefa Souag, the acting director general of Al Jazeera Media Network, said: “We’re pleased for Peter and his family that they are to be reunited. It has been an incredible and unjustifiable ordeal for them, and they have coped with incredible dignity. Peter’s integrity is not just intact, but has been further enhanced by the fortitude and sacrifice he has shown for his profession of informing the public.
“We will not rest until Baher and Mohamed also regain their freedom. The Egyptian authorities have it in their power to finish this properly today, and that is exactly what they must do.”
A security official said Fahmy was expected to be released from Cairo’s Tora prison within days. His fiancee said she hoped he would be free soon and deported to Canada. “His deportation is in its final stages. We are hopeful,” Marwa Omara told
Reuters.
Canada’s foreign ministry welcomed what it called positive developments. “We remain very hopeful that Mr Fahmy’s case will be resolved shortly,” it said in a statement.
The Egyptian interior ministry said on its Facebook page that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi released Greste under a decree issued in November authorising the president to approve the deportation of foreign prisoners.
The journalists say they were doing their jobs when detained in December 2013. They were charged with helping “a terrorist group”.
The arrest of the three journalists sparked a global outcry, with Washington and the United Nations leading calls for their release.
Greste flew to Larnaca in Cyprus accompanied by his brother Michael after being released from Cairo’s Tora prison yesterday.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters in Sydney she had spoken to Greste after his release and that he had said “he was immensely relieved... and desperate to come home”.
The family of Baher Mohamed pinned their hopes for his release on a presidential pardon or his acquittal on appeal.
“I congratulate Greste’s family on his release but I wish my brother Baher was with him,” said his brother Assem.
Amnesty International said Greste’s release should not overshadow the ongoing imprisonment of Fahmy and Mohamed.
“All three men are facing trumped up charges and were forced to endure a farcical trial marred by irregularities,” said Amnesty’s Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. Page 7
