Peter Greste: ‘I feel incredible angst for colleagues left behind’

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/02/peter-greste-australian-reporter-egyptian-jail

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Australian reporter Peter Greste says he feels “incredible angst” for his still-jailed colleagues, in his first comments since being unexpectedly released from a 400-day ordeal inside an Egyptian prison on Sunday afternoon.

Speaking to his employer, al-Jazeera English, the journalist expressed his immense relief at his deportation and said he looked forward to enjoying “the little things” in life.

But he warned that the fight must go on to free his two colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, as well as four other men jailed alongside them in the same case.

“I also feel incredible angst for my colleagues, leaving them behind,” said Greste. “Amidst all of this relief I still feel a sense of concern … if it’s right for me to be free, then it’s right for all of us to be free.”

He paid tribute to Fahmy as an “extraordinary professional” and to Mohamed as “the most amazing family man”, calling both men his brothers. Like Greste, Fahmy has a foreign passport, which also gives him the option of deportation.

The future is bleaker for Mohamed who, like thousands of other political prisoners inside Egypt’s jails, only holds Egyptian nationality.

“If anyone has suffered out of all of this it is Baher because he has a wife and children, one of whom was born [while he was] inside prison,” said Greste. “He was excited that I am out but also concerned because we need to keep the focus on him.”

Greste’s ordeal began in late December 2013, when he and Fahmy were arrested from their hotel rooms in Cairo and Mohamed was seized at his home. As employees of the al-Jazeera news network, which is Qatari-owned, the trio were subsequently accused and convicted of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned Islamist group also supported by Qatar.

Rights groups and journalists who attended the trial denounced it as comically flawed.

Evidence presented by the prosecution in court included a song by the musician Gotye, footage of trotting horses and a press conference in Kenya.

Greste’s nightmare finally and unexpectedly ended on Sunday, when he was deported to Cyprus.

The farcical and unpredictable nature of his detention meant that Greste was surprised to be released so suddenly. “I wasn’t expecting it at all,” said the journalist, whose black zip-up jacket marked a striking change from the all-white prison clothes he had worn less than 24 hours previously.

Greste was going for his daily run around the prison courtyard on Sunday when he was called over by the prison warden and told to pack his bags. At first, he thought he was being transferred to a different jail – a regular experience during his time in custody. But to his surprise, the warden said he was being released and had just a few minutes to say goodbye to his fellow inmates. “Get your stuff and go,” he was told.

Even on the drive to the airport, from where he flew with his brother to Cyprus, he could not quite believe he was about to be set free. “I really didn’t want to let myself believe it was happening until I got my backside on the plane,” said Greste.

He thanked the many thousands of well-wishers, politicians, diplomats and journalists who had campaigned for his release, and said he was looking forward to “watching a few sunsets. I haven’t seen those at all for a very long time. Watching the stars, feeling the sand under my toes. The little things.”

Lastly, he paid tribute to his relatives, some of whom uprooted their lives for months on end to support him in Egypt, and said above all he wanted to “spend time with my family. That’s what’s important.”