2 Al-Jazeera journalists freed from Egyptian prison
Xinhua, February 13, 2015 Adjust font size:
Two Al-Jazeera journalists were released on Friday from prison after they spent more than one year in jail in Egypt, state-run Al-Ahram news website reported on Friday.
Police freed Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed Friday morning after a court on Thursday ordered their release, according to the report.
Fahmy, former Al-Jazeera's Cairo bureau chief, was released on a bail of 250,000 Egyptian pounds (33,000 U.S. dollars), while Mohamed, an Al-Jazeera producer, was released on no bail.
On Feb. 3, Fahmy renounced his Egyptian citizenship and kept the Canadian one, to pave the way for his deportation.
In a court on Thursday, Fahmy, waving an Egyptian flag, told the judge he did not want to give up his Egyptian citizenship, but was told to do so to be released.
Fahmy, Mohamed along with Australian Peter Greste were arrested in December 2013 and sentenced up to 10 years in prison over charges of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood, the power base of the ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
On Jan. 1, the Court of Cassation, the country's top appeals court, accepted an appeal against the sentences, saying the initial trial failed to prove their links to the outlawed Islamist organization.
Greste, an Australian, was deported under a new law that allows the deportation of foreign nationals on trial in Egypt. Endit