CAIRO, Egypt (1 February 2015) – Aljazeera’s Peter Greste, arrested and imprisoned by Egyptian Government has gained freedom after spending 400 days in jail.
A statement by the Egyptian Interior Ministry said it had been “decided to extradite Australian journalist Peter Greste… to his country today, 1 February (2015)… after the cabinet’s approval, in enforcement of the Presidential Decree no. 140 for the year 2014 regarding the rulings on extraditing defendants and deporting the convicts”
Fourty eight years old Greste was arrested alongside two Aljazeera journalists, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed in December 2013 on charges which included spreading false news.
Egyptian sources said Fahmy would be deported to his country Canada.
The journalists were also accused of siding the banned Muslim Brotherhood after the military overthrew the government of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
The three of them denied the charges against them and said they were only reporting the news.
In a statement, Acting Director-General of Aljazeera Media Network, Mostefa Souag, said “We’re pleased for Peter and his family that they are to be reunited. It has been an incredible and unjustifiable ordeal for them, and they have coped with incredible dignity.”
President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi in November announced he was considering pardon to the two foreign al-Jazeera journalists.
In January, Egypt’s Supreme Court ordered the retrial of the Aljazeera journalists.
