Berlin: German authorities yesterday released Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour, two days after detaining him at the request of his native Egypt in a move that sparked outrage from rights groups.
“I’m free, I’m free, I’m free,” Mansour exclaimed outside the Berlin prison, greeted by dozens of cheering supporters. “Thanks to people around the world who supported me in the last days!”
“We welcome this decision by the German prosecutor,” said Al Jazeera spokesman Hareth Adlouni, adding that all charges had been dropped against 52-year-old Mansour, one of the best known TV journalists in the Arabic world.
Al Jazeera’s acting director general Mostefa Souag said a “mistake” had been rectified with Mansour’s release.
“We hope that this will be a lesson to the Egyptian authorities that the rest of the world values freedom of the press,” he said in a statement.
Berlin prosecutors in a short statement said they would not seek his extradition and had ordered Mansour’s release, citing both “legal aspects and possible political-diplomatic concerns”, without detailing them.
Mansour, an Egyptian-British dual national, was controversially arrested on Saturday at a Berlin airport, where he had been due to fly to Doha. He had been sentenced last year by an Egyptian court in absentia to 15 years in prison on torture and other charges which he has rejected as “absurd”.
AFP
