CAIRO (AP) – Egyptian authorities released an Al-Jazeera journalist on Saturday after more than four years in detention, his family lawyer said.
Mahmoud Hussein was released from a police station on Saturday afternoon, just days after a court ordered his parole pending an investigation into allegations of publishing false information and belonging to a banned group, he said. ‘lawyer Gamal Eid.
The lawyer said Hussein will have to report to a nearby police station twice a week.
The journalist’s daughter, al-Zahraa Hussein, confirmed the news in a Facebook post, saying her father had come home. Al-Jazeera also reported his release.
Hussein, an Egyptian who worked for the Qatar-based satellite network, was arrested at Cairo airport in December 2016, when he arrived on a family vacation from Doha, according to the network.
Since the removal of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Egyptian authorities and pro-government media have portrayed the Al-Jazeera network as Egypt’s national enemy for its sympathy for Islamists, especially the illiterate group. legalized of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The network, especially its Arab service, and its staff have been embroiled in the wider political rift between Cairo and Doha. Egyptian authorities have blocked Al-Jazeera’s news website since 2017, along with dozens of other news sites deemed too critical of the government.
Hussein’s release came a month after Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain ended their dispute with Qatar, which began in 2017 and included the four countries that severed diplomatic ties and economic diplomats with Qatar, rich in energy.
The four countries accused Qatar of hosting Iran and funding extremist groups in the region. Doha denied the charges. Al-Jazeera was the center of the dispute. The four nations demanded its closure among other measures, which Qatar rejected.
Egypt ranks at the bottom of the press freedom indexes. It is the third on the list of prisoners of the world’s most important journalists, behind China and Turkey, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists published in early December.
In recent years, authorities have launched widespread repression against dissent, imprisoning thousands of people, mostly Islamist supporters of Morsi, but also several well-known secular activists.