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Al Jazeera says Germany releases correspondent held over Egypt’s request

Al Jazeera correspondent Ahmed Mansour was detained in Berlin on the basis of a national Egyptian arrest warrant.

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Doha - Germany released on Monday Al Jazeera correspondent Ahmed Mansour who was arrested on the weekend at the request of his native Egypt, the Doha-based channel said.

“We welcome this decision by the German prosecutor,” said Al Jazeera spokesman Hareth Adlouni, adding that the prosecutor had dropped all charges against Mansour.

A protester holds a sign depicting Egyptian-British Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour in front of the criminal court in Berlin. -AFP 

The 52-year-old journalist was arrested on Saturday at a Berlin airport, with a spokesman for the German prosecution service saying he was detained “on the basis of a national Egyptian arrest warrant”.

Al Jazeera said an Egyptian court sentenced Mansour in absentia in 2014 to 15 years in prison, for “torturing a lawyer in 2011 on Tahrir Square”, the Cairo epicentre of protests that brought down president Hosni Mubarak.

“Mansour has rejected these absurd accusations,” the network said.

Mansour, who hosts a popular news interview programme, recently interviewed Abu Mohamed Al Jolani, the chief of Al Qaeda’s Syria affiliate Al Nusra Front.

Ties between Doha and Cairo have been extremely strained over Qatar’s backing for the former, short-lived Egyptian government under the Muslim Brotherhood.

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