Egypt has released Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein after more than four years in detention on accusations of publishing false news, reports AFP. Hussein, an Egyptian national held under preventive detention since December 2016, was released from jail Thursday night, as per AFP sources.
Al Jazeera has not yet confirmed his release. It had run a daily campaign for his liberation and had repeatedly said he was being held without formal charges, a trial or conviction.
The Egyptian Observatory for Journalism and Media, a non-governmental organisation, said on its Facebook page that a Cairo criminal court had decided on Monday to free Hussein.
There had been repeated calls for his release after a Cairo prosecutor in May 2019 ordered he be freed from jail. But a week later Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) slapped him with another set of charges and re-ordered his detention.
Hussein’s reported release from jail comes weeks after Egypt said it had agreed to restore ties with Qatar, shortly after the end of a three-year Saudi-led freeze on relations with Doha.
Al Jazeera’s tryst with Egypt
Al Jazeera was caught up in a political rift between Cairo and Doha following the 2013 military ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was backed by Qatar.
Cairo considered Al Jazeera a mouthpiece for Morsi’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, and access to its website has been blocked in Egypt since 2017.
Shortly after Morsi’s ouster, authorities arrested three Al Jazeera journalists, including an Egyptian-Canadian and an Australian, provoking wide international condemnation.
The three journalists, who faced accusations similar to those levelled against Hussein, were freed in 2015. Australian journalist Peter Greste was deported and the two others were released after receiving pardons from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Dhruv Ashok 
Shobhil Shrivastava 
Satish Chogule