Al Jazeera says long-held correspondent released in Egypt

File Photo/AFP

The satellite news network Al Jazeera said on Monday that a correspondent for one of its channels held in Egypt since 2019 has been released after nearly four years in pre-trial detention.

The Qatar-funded network in Doha said that Hisham Abdel Aziz had been released.

It offered no other details. Authorities in Egypt did not immediately acknowledge his release either.

He was freed on Sunday, said Khaled el-Balshy, head of Egypt's Journalists' Union. His wife posted an image Sunday of Abdel Aziz online, thanking God for him.

The network has said that Abdel Aziz was stopped at Cairo International Airport in June 2019 while he was travelling for a family trip.

They say he was "subjected to enforced disappearance for around a month" before being found in custody.

Al Jazeera long had been targeted by Cairo since the country's 2013 military takeover that installed Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sissi into the presidency.

Egypt joined Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in boycotting the country in a political dispute that lasted from 2017 until 2021.

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However, the release comes as Qatar has been normalizing its diplomatic relations with those who launched the boycott. El-Sissi also attended the opening last year of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar at the invitation of its ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

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