Egypt Releases Jailed Al Jazeera Reporter Peter Greste Sunday Feb 01,2015

 

The Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste, who was imprisoned in Cairo for 400 days, has been released by Egytian authorities.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Sunday Feb 01,2015 that Greste had arrived in Cyprus and was "desperate" to return to his native Australia.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that Greste had been released "unconditionally".

Peter Greste was accompanied by his brother Mike and was reported to be in good health.

Two other Al Jazeera journalists - Baher Mohamed, a producer, and the channel's Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy - still remain imprisoned in Egypt

Al Jazeera Media Network welcomed the move but demanded the release of Greste's colleagues.
In a statement, the network said the campaign to free its journalists in Egypt would not end until all three had been released.
It said that all three have to be exonerated, and the convictions against its other journalists tried in absentia also have to be lifted.

Juris, left, and Lois Greste, parents of Australian journalist Peter Greste, and his brother Andrew, centre, arrive at a news conference in Brisbane, Australia on Monday. Their son Peter, a reporter for Al-Jazeera English, was released from an Egyptian prison and deported Sunday after more than a year behind bars

 The timing of Greste's release came as a surprise, just days after Egypt suffered one of the bloodiest militant attacks in years. More than 30 members of the security forces were killed on Thursday night Jan 29,2015 in Sinai

The Interior Ministry said on its Facebook page that Sissi released Greste under a decree issued in November authorizing the president to approve the deportation of foreign prisoners

Peter Greste returns home to Australia after jail in Egypt

Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste has returned to the Australian city of Brisbane to be reunited with his family, following his release on Sunday from an Egyptian prison

Speaking earlier upon his arrival in Brisbane, Mr Greste again called for the Egyptian authorities to release his colleagues, and others convicted with them.
"Egypt has an opportunity to show that justice does not depend on your nationality," he said. "If it's right for me to be free, it's right for them to be free."

At his first news conference since arriving back he described his relief.
He thanked the Australian government, the public and his family for launching such a big campaign to free him and his colleagues.
"If I appreciated my family beforehand, what they have given me... I know more than anyone else perhaps that this campaign would not have had half the momentum if it was not for the incredible contribution of my parents and my brothers," Peter Greste said.

 

Note

All three were arrested in 2013 over their coverage of the violent crackdown on Islamist protests following the military overthrow of former president Mohammed Morsi. Egyptian authorities accused them of providing a platform for Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, now declared a terrorist organization, but officials never provided any concrete evidence 

Egyptian authorities accuse Al-Jazeera of being a mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Qatar-backed movement which President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi toppled in 2013 when he was Egypt's army chief.

Greste, Mohamed and Fahmy had been falsely accused of colluding with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
After their conviction in June 2014, the three men were sentenced to between 7 and 10 years in jail.

 

On January 1, 2015 Egypt's Court of Cassation overturned the sentences and ordered a retrial, but there is still no indication of when that trial will begin.