AL JAZEERA: GERMANY RELEASES JOURNALIST AHMED MANSOUR

German authorities released its veteran journalist, Ahmed Mansour, after having detained him for two days upon Egypt’s request. (Photo: AA)

Berlin, 6 Ramadhan 1436/23 June 2015 (MINA) – Released Al Jazeera TV journalist has thanked Turkish president and Turkish prime minister for their support during his detention in Berlin.

“I thank the freedom leader, not only for his own people, but for all the people of the world, [Turkish President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” Ahmed Mansour told Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA), after his release Monday.

“He was the only leader in the world to support me while I was in police custody,” Mansour said.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also called my lawyer twice to ask about his situation, he added.

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“Thank you Turkey, thank you Turkish President and Turkish Prime Minister,” Mansour said.

Mansour said it was Egyptian authorities who asked for his “politically-motivated” detention by the federal German police, adding that his release was a “major defeat and a loss for the Sisi administration in Berlin”.

He also urged “all journalists in the world to be persistent on freedoms. Fight to be free and do not hold back. No dictatorship lasts forever.”

Al Jazeera TV confirmed Monday that German authorities released its veteran journalist after having detained him for two days upon Egypt’s request.

Mansour said that his arrest had been made under political influence. “This was an arrest requested by Egyptian authorities to German authorities,” he said.

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The journalist highlighted the independence of Germany’s courts. “They did not accept repression and the political repression of a regime outside Germany and decided to free Ahmed Mansour,” he said.

The German prosecutor general decided to release Mansour without indicting him, according to Al Jazeera, but it was not yet clear if he would be allowed to leave Germany.

Mansour, who has both Egyptian and British citizenship, was arrested on Saturday in Berlin as he was about to board a plane to Qatar.

The incident comes two weeks after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s visit to Germany.

The Egyptian government accuses Al Jazeera of bias in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood group — an allegation the channel denies. (T/P001/R03)

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Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)