Al Jazeera retrial: Egypt pardons journalists Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed

Extract from ABC News

Updated about 5 hours ago

Photo: Al Jazeera journalists Mohamed Fahmy (L) and Baher Mohamed have been pardoned, according to official media. (AFP: Khaled Desouki)

Related Story: Greste calls for Sisi pardon after Egypt Al Jazeera verdict

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Map: Egypt

Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pardoned jailed Al Jazeera journalists Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, along with 100 prisoners, the presidency and official media reported.

Presidency spokesman Alaa Youssef said the two Al-Jazeera colleagues were among the pardoned group, which also included women activists Sana Seif and Yara Sallam.
Fahmy, Mohamed and their Australian colleague Peter Greste were sentenced in a retrial last month for broadcasting "false" news that harmed Egypt and aiding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Fahmy and Mohamed were released from prison within hours of their presidential pardon being announced.

Greste was deported in February through a presidential decree and his name did not appear on the list of those pardoned. It is not clear whether the pardon will also apply to him.
The pardons came on the eve of the Muslim holidays of Eid, when prisoner releases often take place in Muslim countries.
"This comes in the framework of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's initiative to release a number of youth which he launched ... in December," local media quoted presidential sources as saying.
In a tweet, Fahmy confirmed the news, writing "AJ Staff is Free!"
Fahmy, who had abandoned his Egyptian citizenship to qualify for deportation, is expected to leave Egypt for Canada.
A spokesperson for the Canadian government said that Canada was pleased with the pardon and it would help arrange Fahmy's departure from Egypt.
"I am so happy. Mohamed is so happy," Fahmy's wife Marwa Omran said.
She said following his release, her husband "wants to pursue getting his nationality back".
Mohamed spoke to the ABC shortly after they were dropped by police in a Cairo suburb.
"I'm absolutely happy, but so tired," he said.

Greste hails 'absolutely extraordinary news'

The pardon came 633 days since the three journalists were first arrested on December 29, 2013.

Timeline of key events

The battle between Al Jazeera English journalists Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed and the Egyptian state has now been going on for nearly two years.

Their detention and trial sparked global criticism towards Mr Sisi, who has said he wished the journalists had been deported from the outset rather than put on trial.
In wake of the reports Greste told the ABC Middle East correspondent Sophie McNeill it was "absolutely extraordinary news".
Greste called for Mr Sisi to "undo that injustice" after the three were sentenced in August, following a retrial.
The pardons also come a day before Mr Sisi planned to head to New York for the 70th session of the UN General Assembly.
Human rights groups have accused Egyptian authorities of widespread violations since the army toppled the country's first democratically elected president, Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, after mass protests against his rule two years ago.
The pardons were also announced on the same day that France announced it had agreed to sell Egypt two French Mistral helicopter carriers, whose planned sale to Russia had been cancelled.

ABC/wires