Germany releases Al Jazeera journalist

Al Jazeera television yesterday said German authorities had released journalist Ahmad Mansour. Al Jazeera said Germany’s public prosecutor had decided to release Mansour without charges. No further details were immediately available.

“We welcome this decision by the German prosecutor,” said Al Jazeera spokesman Hareth Adlouni, adding that all charges have been dropped.

Germany had said earlier yesterday it was “far” from a decision on extraditing a detained Al Jazeera journalist to his native Egypt, voicing concern about the rule of law and human rights there.

Ahmad Mansour, 52, was arrested Saturday at a Berlin airport having been accused by Cairo of committing a series of crimes, in a case that prompted angry questions about press freedom and German relations with Egypt.

The Egyptian-British dual national was sentenced last year by an Egyptian court in absentia to 15 years in prison on torture and other charges which he has rejected as “absurd”.

Protests

Protesters yesterday rallied outside the Berlin detention centre where Mansour was being held, calling for his release, while journalists demanded answers from the German government at a press conference.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said that the case was currently in the hands of the Berlin justice system, which had arrested Mansour based on a warrant issued last October.

But Schaefer also stressed that since then Berlin had repeatedly voiced concern about law in Egypt. “The government has repeatedly asked questions about the rule of law in Egyptian criminal proceedings and has repeatedly asked the Egyptian government to respect human rights and freedom of expression,” he said.