An Al-Jazeera Arabic service journalist who had been on hunger strike for more than four months to protest his prolonged detention without charges in Egypt has been released in Cairo.
Abdullah Elshamy, 26, walked free late yesterday evening to cheers and hugs from family members, as well as dozens of friends and supporters. His mother, wife and brothers met him outside a police station in a northern Cairo suburb.
Egypt's prosecutor general had ordered his release, citing "health conditions" after 10 months in jail without charges.
Elshamy, once a chubby young man, looked gaunt and frail, and sported a bushy beard as he left the station in Nasr City, still dressed in a prison uniform.
"I have won," he told reporters, despite pressure from prison authorities to end his strike, including keeping him in solitary confinement. "I have lost 45 kilograms but I was certain that God will make me victorious."
His family said they would take him to a hospital. His detention, along with the trial of other Al-Jazeera journalists, was related to the sweeping crackdown on Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi since the military overthrew him last year. Egyptian officials accused the network of supporting Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood. The Qatar-based network denied the allegations.
Hours earlier, a Canadian-Egyptian journalist for Al-Jazeera imprisoned in Egypt said he is hopeful that Elshamy's release on medical grounds means he too will be freed.
Mohammed Fahmy spoke from a private hospital where he had a medical checkup on his shoulder, an injury that's worsened during his six-month imprisonment.
"We are very confident we are going to be next," said Fahmy as he stepped out of the prison car, handcuffed to a policeman. "We have rebuffed everything that they brought against us" during the trial.
Fahmy and two other Al-Jazeera English journalists are on trial for terrorism-related charges, the first such case against reporters in Egypt. The verdict in the trial that began in February is expected Monday.
Fahmy, a former producer for CNN and contributor to other Western media outlets, is accused of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, a charge he dismisses as baseless. The defendants also include Australian-award winning journalist Peter Greste and Baher Mohammed, another Egyptian reporter for the station.
