Al-Jazeera Reporter in Egypt Freed After Hunger Strike

Citing concerns about his deteriorating health, Egyptian authorities released a journalist for the news service al-Jazeera on Tuesday after jailing him without charges for more than 10 months.

Abdullah Elshamy, 26, was thin, weak and still dressed in a prison uniform as he walked out of a police station near Cairo following a 147-day hunger strike, CBS News reports.

“I won,” he said to reporters.

Elshamy was among a group of al-Jazeera journalists imprisoned in Egypt after the military retook control of the country last year following the overthrow of elected President Mohamed Morsi. Three of Elshamy’s fellow al-Jazeera reporters remain jailed for lending support to the Muslim Brotherhood and are facing terrorism-related charges, which they deny.

The journalists’ arrests are part of a wider crackdown on press freedom in Egypt that has not improved since the June 3 inauguration of Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

[CBS News]