Wednesday, 4 February 2015

Peter Greste returns home to Australia after jail in Egypt


Mr Greste at Brisbane airport


Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste has returned to the Australian city of Brisbane to be reunited with his family, following his release on Sunday from an Egyptian prison.
Mr Greste was arrested along with two colleagues in 2013. They were convicted of spreading false news and aiding the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
The jailing of the journalists sparked an international outcry.
At his first news conference since arriving back he described his relief.
He thanked the Australian government, the public and his family for launching such a big campaign to free him and his colleagues.
"If I appreciated my family beforehand, what they have given me... I know more than anyone else perhaps that this campaign would not have had half the momentum if it was not for the incredible contribution of my parents and my brothers," he said.
He did not give details of the conditions in which the three journalists had been held but said they had spent a lot of time exercising to keep themselves fit. He said he had also spent a lot of time meditating.
Asked about the future, Mr Greste turned to his mother, Lois, saying "Mum, would you mind closing your ears for the moment?", at which she laughed and said: "Oh dear, I know what's coming."
"I don't want to give this up - my job. I'm a correspondent, it's what I do," Mr Greste said.
"How I do it, whether I actually do go ahead with it, I don't know. That's the way I feel right now."
Mr Greste's colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, remain in prison.
'Opportunity for justice'
Speaking earlier upon his arrival in Brisbane, Mr Greste again called for the Egyptian authorities to release his colleagues, and others convicted with them.
"Egypt has an opportunity to show that justice does not depend on your nationality," he said. "If it's right for me to be free, it's right for them to be free."


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