A prominent Egyptian photojournalist was yesterday released after five years in prison and returned home to hugs from his family and friends, pledging to continue working, despite having to spend the nights at a police station nearby.
Mahmoud Abu Zeid, popularly known as “Shawkan,” was convicted of involvement in a 2013 sit-in protest by the Muslim Brotherhood that was broken up by security forces in an operation that left hundreds dead.
He was taking photos at the Rabaa Square in Cairo where supporters of the organization had staged a sit-in in August 2013 to denounce the ouster and detention by the military of freely elected, but divisive and Muslim Brotherhood-backed former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi.
Photo: Reuters
“I was heading out to take photos. I come back to my home after five years,” Shawkan told reporters at his home in Cairo’s Giza neigborhood.
His lawyer, Taher Abuel-Naser, said that he was released from a police station earlier in the morning.
An Egyptian court ordered Shawkan’s release in September last year, after he had served out his term, but he remained behind bars as authorities said that his release was still being processed.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, a former general, has launched an unprecedented assault on journalists over the past few years, imprisoning dozens and occasionally expelling some foreign journalists.
Shawkan said that he has to report to the nearest police station and spend every night there from 6pm until 6am.
However, he would continue to work as a photojournalist, he said.
“I am not the first or the last journalist to be detained,” he said.
“I feel like I was born again, I feel relieved,” said his mother, Reda Mahrous. “I used to stay awake at night thinking, telling myself that Mahmoud will come back today or tomorrow.”
Al-Sissi has rolled back many of the freedoms won by the anti-Mubarak uprising, silenced most dissenting voices in the media and placed severe restrictions on civic society groups.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been outlawed as a terrorist group.
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