CAIRO (AP) – Egyptian authorities on Saturday released a journalist from Al-Jazeera after more than four years in detention, his family lawyer said.
Attorney Gamal Eid said Mahmoud Hussein was released from a police station on Saturday afternoon, days after a court ordered that he be released on parole pending investigations into charges of publishing false information.
The lawyer said Hussein would have to report to a nearby police station twice a week.
The journalist’s daughter, el-Zahraa Hussein, confirmed the news in a Facebook message, saying her father had arrived home. Al-Jazeera also announced his release.
Hussein, an Egyptian who works for the Qatar-based satellite network, was detained at Cairo airport in December 2016 when he arrived on a family holiday from Doha, the network said.
Since the ouster of President Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Egyptian authorities and government media have portrayed the Al-Jazeera network as the national enemy of Egypt for its sympathy with Islamists, especially the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.
The network, especially its Arab service, and its staff are embroiled in the broader political rift between Cairo and Doha. Egyptian authorities have blocked Al-Jazeera’s news website since 2017, along with dozens of other news websites that are considered critical of the government.
Hussein’s release comes a month after Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain ended their dispute with Qatar, which began in 2017 and includes the four countries that sever their diplomatic and economic ties with the energy-rich Qatar.
The four countries accused Qatar of visiting Iran and funding extremist groups in the region. Doha denied the charges. Al-Jazeera was at the center of the dispute. The four countries demanded, among other things, the closure, which Qatar rejected.
Egypt is close to the bottom of press freedom indices. It is third on the list of the world’s best prison guards for journalists, behind China and Turkey, according to a report by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists earlier in December.
Authorities have launched a wide-ranging crackdown over the past few years, sending thousands of people to prison, mainly Morsi’s Islamic supporters but also a number of well-known secular activists.