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| Egyptian journalist Ahmed Mansour released by German authorities | Egyptian journalist Ahmed Mansour released by German authorities |
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| Egyptian al-Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour has been released without charge two days after he was detained in Berlin at Egypt’s request. | |
| Related: German protests grow over detention of Egyptian journalist | Related: German protests grow over detention of Egyptian journalist |
| “I do not have a lot of details about his release but the only thing I know is that he has been released and that his lawyer and al-Jazeera’s lawyer were with him a short while ago,” said Eissa Taibi, al-Jazeera’s Berlin correspondent. | |
| Earlier on Monday the German government had played down the chances of Mansour being extradited to Egypt, citing concerns about the Egyptian legal process, including group sentences and doubts about due process. | |
| Mansour, who has dual Egyptian and British citizenship, was arrested at Berlin’s Tegel airport on Saturday at Egypt’s request. An Egyptian court convicted him in absentia in 2014 of torturing a lawyer in Tahrir Square in 2011 and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Mansour rejected the charges, calling them “a flimsy attempt at character assassination”. | |
| Mansour was detained while attempting to board a flight to Doha – two weeks after the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, made a state visit to Berlin. | Mansour was detained while attempting to board a flight to Doha – two weeks after the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, made a state visit to Berlin. |
| A group calling itself the German-Egyptian Union for Democracy gathered around 100 protesters outside the Berlin jail where Mansour was being detained earlier on Monday. They held signs which read: “Freedom for Ahmed Mansour. Freedom for Egypt. Freedom for Journalists.” | A group calling itself the German-Egyptian Union for Democracy gathered around 100 protesters outside the Berlin jail where Mansour was being detained earlier on Monday. They held signs which read: “Freedom for Ahmed Mansour. Freedom for Egypt. Freedom for Journalists.” |
| MPs across all of Germany’s main political parties had also voiced concern over his detention. Among the most outspoken was the opposition Green party’s Franziska Brantner, who said in a statement on her website: “The Berlin judiciary should under no circumstances allow itself to become a willing tool of the capricious regime in Cairo.” | MPs across all of Germany’s main political parties had also voiced concern over his detention. Among the most outspoken was the opposition Green party’s Franziska Brantner, who said in a statement on her website: “The Berlin judiciary should under no circumstances allow itself to become a willing tool of the capricious regime in Cairo.” |
| Egypt accuses both Qatar and al-Jazeera of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which was branded a terrorist organisation after the military deposed the president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013. Three journalists with al-Jazeera English spent more than 400 days in prison following their arrest in Cairo in late 2013. The trial was regarded internationally as a farce. | Egypt accuses both Qatar and al-Jazeera of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which was branded a terrorist organisation after the military deposed the president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013. Three journalists with al-Jazeera English spent more than 400 days in prison following their arrest in Cairo in late 2013. The trial was regarded internationally as a farce. |
| Chancellor Angela Merkel was criticised by opposition parties and rights groups for hosting Sisi earlier this month. During that visit, German industrial group Siemens signed an €8 bn deal with Egypt to supply it with gas and wind power plants. | |
| Since Sisi took power in 2013 and won a presidential election the following year, courts in Egypt have issued scores of death sentences against Muslim Brotherhood members, including the group’s leadership. |