Al Jazeera journalists granted bail in Egypt, but case against them continues
Jihan Rashid, the wife of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera English journalist, Egyptian Baher Mohamed, hugs a person after the judge ordered the release of her husband and another Al-Jazeera journalist, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, pending their retrial for allegedly supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
CAIRO, Egypt — Two Al-Jazeera English journalists were granted bail on Thursday after spending more than a year behind bars in Egypt.
Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy were arrested along with Australian journalist Peter Greste in December 2013 on charges of spreading false news and assisting terrorists.
Fahmy’s bail was set at 250,000 Egyptian pounds ($32,700), while Mohamed and others detained in the case were not required to pay for their release. Greste was deported to his native Australia earlier this month.
“I’m very happy. Now I can relax, now I can sleep. I didn’t sleep for the last year,” said Marwa Omara, Fahmy’s fiancée, adding that she planned to take advantage of her partner’s freedom.
“I think we will do the wedding as soon as he’s out,” she said.
Fahmy, an Egyptian-Canadian dual national, renounced his Egyptian citizenship prior to the session in hopes of being deported to Canada under the same presidential decree as Greste.
Jehan Mohamed, Baher’s wife, was also present in the court.
“I’m going right now to the children. I’ll tell them Daddy’s coming today,” she said. “Life has changed from today thank God.”
But while the release of the journalists from jail has been welcomed, the case is still ongoing.
The three were arrested in a case that rights groups have criticised as politically motivated.Amnesty International called the charges “trumped-up” and labelled the three Al Jazeera journalists as “prisoners of conscience.”
The arrests are believed to be motivated in part by a rift between Egypt and Qatar. The Egyptian government stands accused of targeting journalists working for the Qatar-based channel because of the Gulf nation’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, ousted by the Egyptian military in 2013 and since declared a terrorist organization.
After a trial that was denounced as a sham by rights groups and international media, the three were sentenced to seven to ten years in jail last June. In January this year the sentenced were canceled and a retrial ordered.
Following the release of Peter Greste, both Mohamed and Fahmy’s lawyers have called for their clients to be given the same treatment.
All of the defendants in the case are expected to be released Thursday evening. The next session is scheduled for February 23.
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