Journalist critical of regime in Egypt after seven years released French ex-president Sarkozy fights prison

Almost exactly seven years after his imprisonment in Egypt, prominent journalist and researcher Ismail Alexandrani has been released. His lawyer Chalid Ali announced on Twitter on Monday evening that he had left prison.

After his release, supporters distributed photos of Alexandrani with a freshly squeezed juice in front of a street cafe.

Alexandrani had researched Islamism and the Sinai Peninsula. Among other things, he had published reports in Lebanon about the Egyptian army, which had made little progress in the fight against extremists in North Sinai for years. He was a visiting scientist in Washington, lived in Turkey for a while and gave lectures in Berlin, among other places. In 2015, he was arrested at Hurghada airport on a return journey from Berlin.

After about two years in custody, a military court sentenced him to ten years in prison for publishing military secrets and spreading false news abroad. Until last year, no evidence was produced to support his conviction, according to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ). He was in the infamous Tora Prison in Cairo.

Press freedom is very limited in Egypt. In the global ranking of the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the country occupies one of the bottom places and is one of the countries with the most journalists arrested in 2021.

(yam/sda/dpa)