Egypt pardons Canadian Al-Jazeera journalist, lawyer says

Al Jazeera journalists Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed have been released from prison following the presidential pardon in Egypt. AP’s earlier story is below.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has pardoned the Canadian journalist after he was recently convicted for a second time on terrorism-related charges and for spreading false news.

The pardon came on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha and a day before the Egyptian president was to travel to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly. Authorities arrested Fahmy, Greste and Mohamed, later charging them with allegedly being part of the Muslim Brotherhood, and airing falsified footage meant to damage national security.

It is unclear whether Greste, who was released and deported from Egypt, would also receive a formal pardon.

Prominent Egyptian activists Yara Sallam and Sanaa Seif were also among those pardoned, according to MENA.

The case against the three embroiled their journalism in the wider conflict between Egypt and Qatar following the 2013 military ousting of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

Executive director Tom Henheffer says many jailed journalists don’t have support of people in countries like Canada, shining the spotlight on their plight. Nor was it clear when Mr. Fahmy, a Canadian, and Mr. Mohamed, an Egyptian, would be freed from jail.

It has been a tradition during national and religious occasions that the presidents of Egypt pardon prisoners, mainly those who served more than half of their terms as well as patients and the elderly.

His ordeal began when he and two colleagues were arrested in December 2013 while working for satellite news broadcaster Al Jazeera English in Cairo. Amal Clooney, lawyer for Fahmy, issued a statement saying the release of the journalists corrects a “longstanding injustice”. All three were sentenced to three years in prison last month in a verdict denounced by rights groups and news organisations as an assault on press freedom.

Ottawa had formally asked Egypt’s president to pardon Fahmy or allow his deportation to Canada following his sentencing.

The Egyptian government accuses Qatar-based Al Jazeera of harboring bias in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood – an allegation the channel denies.

The journalists’ trials drew an global outcry from human rights and free expression advocates.

The government sought to extradite Greste, who had already left the country after being deported.