A reporter for Al-Jazeera English was released from an Egyptian prison and deported Sunday after more than a year behind bars, but his two Egyptian colleagues remained jailed in a case widely condemned as a sham by human-rights groups.
Australian Peter Greste was whisked away on a flight to Cyprus. His release came as a welcome surprise to fellow reporters and activists who spent months pressing for his freedom.
But rights groups and Greste's Qatar-based broadcaster called on Egypt to release the other two defendants in the case, which has hindered the country's international standing as it struggles to recover from the political unrest and economic collapse caused by the 2011 uprising.
Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohammed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohammed were arrested in December 2013 over their coverage of the violent crackdown on Islamist protests following the military overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi.
Egyptian authorities accused them of providing a platform for Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, now declared a terrorist organization. But authorities provided no concrete evidence. The journalists and their supporters insist they were doing their jobs during a time of violent upheaval.
The three were widely seen as having been caught up in a regional power struggle between Egypt and Qatar, which funds Al-Jazeera and had been a strong backer of Morsi. Greste's release follows a thawing of ties between Cairo and Doha.
"Hard to believe but YES @PeterGreste is a free man," his brother Andrew wrote on Twitter.
An Egyptian prison official and the nation's official news agency said Greste was released following a presidential "approval." The official and an Interior Ministry statement said he was released under a new deportation law passed last year. The law appeared to have been tailored to the Al-Jazeera case.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. There was no word on the fate of the other two defendants.
Acting Al-Jazeera Director General Mostefa Souag said the Qatar-based network "will not rest until Baher and Mohamed also regain their freedom."
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, welcomed the news of Greste's release but said "nothing can make up for his ordeal" and called for the others to be released.
"It is vital that in the celebratory fanfare surrounding his deportation the world does not forget the continuing ordeal" of his co-workers.
Canada also welcomed the "positive developments," saying it was hopeful that Fahmy's case would be "resolved shortly," according to a statement from the office of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Consular.
The three were convicted on terrorism charges and for spreading false information, faking reports to show that the country was on the verge of civil war and aiding the Brotherhood's goal of portraying Egypt as a failed state.
Mohammed received an additional three years for his possession of a spent bullet he had picked up as a souvenir. Three other foreign reporters received 10-year sentences in absentia. Twelve other co-defendants were sentenced to between seven and 10 years, some of them in absentia.
An appeals court overturned their verdict in January and ordered a retrial. No date has been set for the case.
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