Egypt releases journalist Mahmoud Hussein, detained since 2016

Egyptian authorities on February 6 released jailed journalist Mahmoud Hussein, working for Qatar's Al Jazeera television network. Held in pre-trial detention for more than four years, Hussein walked free from a police station Saturday, after prosecutors granted him a conditional release pending investigations. Hussein’s daughter, el-Zahraa Hussein, and the Qatar-based television network confirmed the report, saying that Mahmoud Hussein, who was arrested by Police and sentenced to Egyptian jail without charges or trial in breach of the law, returned Saturday. In an online post on social media, the former informed about the journalist’s arrival home. 

The Egyptian national was detained on December 20, 2016, in Cairo during his personal visit to the Middle Eastern country as he arrived from Doha. According to the Qatar-based satellite network’s coverage, the journalist remained ‘in prison under arbitrary and illegal detention’. Egyptian authorities, over the past few years, halted coverage of the Network’s Arabic service, citing that the channel operated against the Egyptian government with a bias for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group. The 2013 military ouster of Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi dragged the network in a spat with Egyptian authorities, and pro-government media, who alleged that the Al-Jazeera network was Egypt’s ‘national enemy’ and a mouthpiece for Morsi's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement. The Egyptian authorities had then also detained an Australian journalist for CNN and BBC namely Peter Greste. 

"Even though there are bail conditions, Dad is out of the police station, thank God. Freedom to all those oppressed," his other daughter based in Paris, Aya Hussein, said on Twitter.

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Network's coverage under blockade

According to The Associated Press, the Qatar-based network’s news sites have been under blockade in Egypt since 2017, in the aftermath of the political rift between Cairo and Doha, which embroiled the network’s staff into clashes and differences with the pro-government forces. Following Qatar’s normalizing of ties with Gulf quartet Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, the Al-Jazeera journalist was freed. As per his lawyer, Gamal Eid’s statement, Hussein was held by Egypt’s government for publishing ‘false and misleading’ news, and for belonging to a “banned group”.

"...No journalist should ever be subjected to what Mahmoud has suffered for the past four years for merely carrying out his profession," the acting director general of Al-Jazeera TV network, Mostefa Souag, said in a statement on its website.

As relations between Gulf nations and Qatar thwarted due to Doha’s outlook towards Iran, Egypt accused Qatar of financing the terror and extremist groups in the region, of which, Al-Jazeera network got roped into the controversy as Egypt launched a crackdown on dissent. Egypt is also a country, that ranks the lowest on the press freedom indexes, according to a report published by the Committee to Protect Journalists last year in December. 

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(Image Credit: AP)