Egyptian authorities released Al-Jazeera journalists Bahaa El-Din Ibrahim (right) and Rabie Al-Sheikh (Al-Jazeera)
The Egyptian authorities released fellow journalists Rabie Al-Sheikh and Bahaa Ibrahim at dawn on Friday, after years of pretrial detention.
The head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, Khaled Al-Balshi, said, “The release of colleagues Rabie Al-Sheikh and Bahaa El-Din Ibrahim, Al-Jazeera journalists, is an important step that we hope will be completed by the release of the rest of our imprisoned journalist colleagues, and all those imprisoned in cases of opinion.”
Al-Balshi added in a blog post on his Facebook account, “I communicated with colleague Bahaa El-Din Ibrahim after his release, as well as with the family of colleague Rabie Al-Sheikh, and we hope that all of our joy will be complete with the release of the rest of the colleagues.”
The two colleagues were arrested while visiting Egypt for a family vacation outside the scope of their work, and were charged with joining a terrorist group and spreading false news.
In mid-February, Al Jazeera Media Network expressed its deep concern about the conditions of our colleagues Rabie Al-Sheikh and Bahaa El-Din Ibrahim, who are sitting in Egyptian prisons without trial.
The release of Ibrahim and Al-Sheikh comes after Egypt released Al Jazeera journalists Hisham Abdel Aziz in May 2023, and Ahmed Al-Najdi in September 2022.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies