Egypt Frees Journalist Couple

Egyptian photojournalist Hossam el-Sayed and his wife Solafa Magdy, an independent journalist, have been released after spending the past year and a half behind bars, their professional association said Wednesday.

Solafa Magdy and her husband Hossam el-Sayed were freed on Tuesday night, the association's president, Diaa Rashwan, announced on Facebook, thanking judicial authorities.

They were arrested in a Cairo cafe in November 2019 and accused of belonging to an unnamed "terrorist" group while Magdy also faced a fake news charge.

They were released without facing any formal charges in a courtroom.

On Monday, prominent dissident journalist and politician Khaled Dawoud also walked free after more than 18 months in detention.

A former head of the liberal opposition Dostour party and senior journalist for the English-language edition of state newspaper Al-Ahram, he had been arrested in September 2019 after rare anti-government protests.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt's former army chief, has overseen a massive, crackdown aimed at quashing dissent, jailing many journalists, lawyers, academics and activists.

Egypt ranks 166th out of 188 countries on Reporters Without Borders (RSF)'s Press Freedom Index.

Rights groups say some 60,000 prisoners of conscience are still languishing in Egyptian jails.