Egypt releases Al Jazeera correspondent Mahmoud Hussein

CAIRO - 23 May 2019: Qatari-owned Al Jazeera correspondent in Egypt Mahmoud Hussein was released pending investigations after being held in detention for two years over charges with the inciting violence against Egypt via spreading false news and belonging to an outlawed group.

On Thursday, a Cairo criminal court, held in Torha district, decided to release Hussein pending the investigations after he was kept on remand by the State Security Prosecution since he was arrested in December 2016. Hussein was detained three days after he returned from Qatar to spend the weekend with his family, France 24 reported.

In the same day, the Prosecution already appealed against his release. However, another Cairo court, held in the Fifth Settlement district, upheld his release.

As per Egypt’s Criminal Code, a pre-trial detention should not be renewed for more than 10 times by the prosecution and a decision of extending the pre-trial detention shall be considered by a criminal court. In case that a new renewal of detention was rejected by the court, the prosecution should appeal against the release.

Additional reporting by Omnyia Al-Mogy