Journalists facing terror-related retrial released on bail in Egypt

The decision comes less than two weeks after the deportation of the reporters’ Australian colleague, Peter Greste, under a new law allowing Egypt’s president to deport foreign defendants or convicts.

Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, who recently renounced his Egyptian citizenship, is widely expected to be similarly deported.

Fahmy was ordered to pay $33,000 (£21,000) in bail, far more than any of the other defendants.

A third Al-Jazeera English defendant, Baher Mohammed, holds no foreign citizenship and is not eligible for the deportation option.

He and the remaining defendants – 11 mostly students charged with involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood – are also being freed. The next session in the 
retrial is scheduled for February 23.

The families of the defendants cheered the decision.

The fiancée of Fahmy, Marwa Omara, broke down in tears. She told reporters: “I am very happy. It is a rebirth for me and Mohamed.”

She said they will plan their long-delayed wedding now that Fahmy is to be released.

The wife of Mohammed also broke down in tears. “I am happy but my happiness is incomplete until he gets acquitted.”

Mohammed’s wife delivered a child while he was in detention.

Judge Hassan Farid ordered the defendants not to leave “their homeland” and to report to their local police station each morning.

The Al-Jazeera English journalists were initially sentenced to at least seven years in prison before a retrial was ordered.

Fahmy and Mohammed were in court yesterday behind a soundproof glass cage for the first time .