Award-winning Egyptian photojournalist freed from jail

Mahmoud Abu Zeid spent nearly six years in prison for covering a bloody crackdown on protests

CAIRO: Award-winning Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid was released on Monday after spending nearly six years in prison following his arrest while covering a bloody crackdown on protests, his lawyer said.

The photographer, widely known as Shawkan, last year received Unesco's World Freedom Prize, dismaying the Egyptian authorities who accused him of 'terrorist and criminal acts.'

"He was released at 6:00 am from the al Haram police station (near the Giza pyramids) and is currently at home," his attorney Taher Aboul Nasr told AFP.

Shawkan was detained in August 2013 while covering clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi that turned into a bloodbath in which hundreds of demonstrators died.

The photojournalist was jailed and put on trial along with 739 defendants, most of them charged with killing police and vandalising property.

It was one of the largest mass trials since the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran president Hosni Mubarak.

In September an Egyptian court upheld death sentences against 75 defendants and gave Shawkan a five-year jail term -- which covered the time he had already served -- but he remained in jail awaiting his release.



 

Shawkan was accused of "murder and membership of a terrorist organisation" -- charges that can carry the death penalty -- sparking condemnation from international rights groups which demanded his release.

Amnesty International said at the time he had been convicted "simply for doing his job as a photojournalist and documenting the police brutality that took place that day".

Another 214 people who were sentenced in September to five years in prison were released from prison on Monday.

President Abdel Fattah al Sisi, a former army chief, was elected in 2014 nearly a year after leading the military's overthrow of Morsi following mass protests against the year-long rule.

Sisi, who critics say has carried out a widespread crackdown on dissent, was re-elected in March 2018 after securing more than 97 per cent of the vote in the absence of any serious competition.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks Egypt 161st out of 180 countries on its press freedom index.