Egypt to release Al-Jazeera journalist
Egypt’s public prosecutor has authoritatively mandated the relinquishment of al-Jazeera journalist Abdullah Elshamy on medical grounds.
Elshamy has been on hunger strike for proximately five months to protest against his detention without charge.
He was apprehended last August when police broke up a protest by adherents of deposed president Mohammed Morsi.
Earlier, a court in Cairo verbalized it would distribute its verdict next week in the case of three other al-Jazeera journalists detained in December.
Former BBC correspondent Peter Greste and his colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed are incriminated of spreading erroneous news and collaborating with Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, which has been designated a terrorist organisation by the regime.
Prosecutors have authoritatively mandated the maximum penalty of at least 15 years in confinement for all the defendants, who gainsay all the charges.
Elshamy, who is reported to be in poor health, was one of 13 people who the prosecutor general decided to liberate on health grounds on Monday. The other 12 were adherents of the Brotherhood.
Elshamy’s family told the AFP news agency in May that he had shed 40kg (88lb) since he commenced his hunger strike.
“Our request to relinquish Abdullah was accepted by the prosecutor general,” his lawyer, Shaaban Saeed, verbalized on Monday. “He will be out of Torah prison once we culminate the relinquishment procedures [on Tuesday] morning.”
Elshamy works for al-Jazeera’s Arabic channel.
The Qatar-predicated network was ostracized from operating inside Egypt after the ascendant entities inculpated it of broadcasting reports sympathetic to Mr Morsi and the Brotherhood. Al-Jazeera has consistently gainsaid the allegations.
