BY AFP
An Egyptian court has ordered the deportation of jailed Al-Jazeera reporter Peter Greste to his native Australia, Egypt’s state news agency and security officials said Sunday.
Greste had already left Egypt and was on his way back to Australia on Sunday afternoon, security officials told Reuters.
A Cairo airport official said the journalist was on an EgyptAir flight to Larnaca, Cyprus that took off shortly after 1600 local time (1400 GMT) on Sunday.
Greste spent 400 days behind bars in Egypt after being sentenced to seven years in prison for allegedly aiding the Muslim Brotherhood group – blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Egyptian authorities – in a case that sparked international outcry.
Those was no word on the fate of his two Al-Jazeera colleagues – Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed – who were sentenced to seven and ten years respectively on similar charges.
However, Fahmy’s fiancée said she was hopeful that he would also be released soon.
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“His deportation is in its final stages. We are hopeful,” Marwa Omara she told Reuters shortly after Greste left Egypt.
AL-Jazeera said it welcomed Greste’s release, but said it “will not rest” until the other journalists are freed.
The trial of the three journalists has been labelled a sham by rights groups while foreign countries, including the US, have expressed their concern over their detention.
On 1 January this year, Egypt’s Court of Cassation announced a retrial for Greste and his colleagues but refused to grant bail.
However, according to a law passed late last year, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi has the power to deport foreign defendants or convicts if it is considered to be in the interest of national security. The law was seen as providing a potential legal instrument with which to free the journalists.
“There is a presidential decision to deport Peter Greste to Australia,” senior interior ministry official told the AFP news agency.