Ahmed Mansour: Al-Jazeera Reporter Freed in Germany
Al-Jazeera reporter Ahmed Mansour has been freed in Germany after being detained following an extradition request from Egypt, German prosecutors confirmed.
Ahmed Mansour, who works for the network’s Arabic-language service, was held on June 20 as he tried to board a flight from Berlin to Qatar.
A court in Egypt’s capital Cairo sentenced Ahmed Mansour to 15 years in prison in absentia last year on torture charges.
Al-Jazeera says the accusations against Ahmed Mansour are absurd and false.
“This was an unfortunate incident in Germany, but we are pleased that the mistake has been rectified,” said al-Jazeera’s acting director general, Mostefa Souag.
“We hope that this will be a lesson to the Egyptian authorities that the rest of the world values freedom of the press,” he added.
Ahmed Mansour’s lawyer, Patrick Teubner, told Associated Press that there were no further legal matters pending against his client in Germany.
Ahmed Mansour was released into a cheering crowd on June 22.
“Thanks to people around the world who supported me in the last days,” he said, according to AFP.
Earlier, the German government had said that it could veto an extradition decision from the court.
Foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told a news conference that Germany has repeatedly questioned the rule of law in Egypt.
“Against this background, you will surely understand that there are doubts in the Mansour case,” he said.
“I don’t think one can say this loudly enough: Of course, nobody will be extradited from Germany who risks being sentenced to death abroad.”
Ahmed Mansour, along with two Muslim Brotherhood members and an Islamic preacher, is accused of taking part in the torture of a lawyer in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in 2011, during protests against then President Hosni Mubarak.
Video footage of the incident shows the lawyer being kicked but does not show Ahmed Mansour, according to AP. The journalist later interviewed the preacher about the incident, the news agency says.