Freedom for Award-Winning Photojournalist after 5 Years in Prison

An award-winning photojournalist, Mahmoud Abu Zeid, alias Shawkan, arrested in 2013 by Egyptian authorities was on 4^th March reunited with his family after five long years.

Mahmoud was arrested and detained in 2013 while taking pictures of security officers who broke up protests and the sit-in by supporters of Egypt’s ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi.

“I can’t describe how I feel … I am free,” an emotional Mahmoud told journalist after his Monday release.

Mahmoud’s detention has raised concern and has had the U.N., the UNESCO, and the human rights groups talking and calling for his release. Mahmoud was however released after he had already served out his sentence before being sentenced. Mahmoud is still expected to spend nights at a police station for the next five years despite his release.

“All journalists are at risk of being arrested or killed while doing their work. I am not the first and I will not be the last,” Mahmoud affirmed.

The protests and breakup of the sit-in were followed by the 2011 uprising where the military under the leadership of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted out Mursi who was Egypt’s first freely elected President. Mahmoud was accused and charged with belonging to an outlawed group and being in possession of firearms and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Mahmoud was charged during a mass trial where 75 people other people were handed a death-sentenced while over 600 others were handed jail terms.

Mahmoud was awarded the UNESCO 2018 Press Freedom Prize where the organization added his detention was an abuse of his rights as a human. Amnesty International has released a statement calling for the requirement that Mahmoud spends all his nights for the next five years to be immediately lifted saying the journalist should never have been forced to spend a single minute behind bars – let alone five and a half years.

READ I Have Been in Prison for 10 Years for a Crime I Did Not Commit