Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste was released from a Cairo jail on Sunday and left Egypt to Cyrus after 400 days in prison on charges that included aiding a terrorist group.
The Australian ex-BBC correspondent was arrested in December 2013 and tried with his two Al Jazeera colleagues on charges that included spreading false news and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood.
There was no official word on the fate of his two Al Jazeera colleagues – Canadian-Egyptian, Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian National, Baher Mohamed.
The three were sentenced to seven to 10 years on charges including spreading lies to help a terrorist organization – a reference to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Mr Fahmy, who holds dual Egyptian and Canadian citizenship, may be freed after having his Egyptian Nationality was revoked.
All the defendants denied the charges against them and said their trial was a sham.
They were accused of collaborating with the banned Muslim Brotherhood after the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi by the Military in 2013.
In their defence, the three men said they were simply reporting the news.
Many Egyptians see Qatar-based Al Jazeera as a force set on destabilizing the country, a view that had been encouraged in the Local Media which labeled the Journalists “The Marriott Cell”, because they worked from a hotel of the U.S.based chain.
Egyptian authorities accused Al Jazeera of being a mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Qatar-backed movement which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled in 2013 when he was Egypt’s army chief.
The timing of Greste’s release came as a surprise, just days after Egypt suffered one of the bloodiest militant attacks in years. More than 30 members of the security forces were killed on Thursday night in Sinai, and ensuing comments from Sisi suggested he was in no mood for compromise.
The Interior Ministry said on its Facebook page that Sisi released Greste under a decree issued in November authorizing the President to approve the deportation of foreign prisoners.
