After 401 days in an Egyptian prison, Australian journalist Peter Greste, brother of Wee Waa farmer Andrew Greste, walked free yesterday and boarded a plane out of Egypt.
He said in an interview with Al Jazeera, his first public remarks since he was freed “I can’t tell you how relieved I am at being free. I mean, I really didn’t expect it.
“We were settling in for a period of months behind prison for the retrial, so to be out now with just a few minutes’ notice really is just extraordinary.”
His family was overjoyed, with Andrew Greste breaking the news on Twitter just after 6 am on Monday morning, saying “Peter Greste is a free man, he has just left Egyptian airspace, yippeeeeeee!!”
Andrew received a phone call from Foreign Affairs Minister Julia Bishop to confirm the news.
“It was out of the blue,” he said at a press conference in Brisbane yesterday.
“We knew Sunday morning that there was a possibility, it looked like it was going to happen but Egypt is a very uncertain and unpredictable place and until he was on that plane anything could have happened, he wasn’t out of there until he was out of there.”
Peter Greste’s ordeal along with that of his colleagues gained international attention and press coverage.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi had foreshadowed Greste’s imminent release, indicating last week that he was close to finding a resolution to the matter of the three Al Jazeera television journalists, including Greste, who were arrested in 2013 and sentenced to seven years in jail.
They were accused of producing news reports which were supportive of banned Islamist groups, but the claims were never proven and regarded as spurious.
An important breakthrough occurred earlier this month with an Egyptian appeals court ordering the retrial of the journalists.
Egypt has been under extraordinary pressure to release the journalists, and recently elected president El-Sisi continually distanced himself from the actions of the country’s former leadership.
“I wouldn’t have wished for any personnel from the media or journalism to be standing in a court in Egypt, but I was not in office at that time,” El-Sisi said. “Had it been I in office at the time, I would have just sent those reporters home, not detained any of them.”
Andrew Greste, alongside parents Lois and Juris, opened yesterday’s press conference with a message from Peter, having spoken to him on the phone since his release.
“Peter wanted to thank all the people who’ve supported him… including the Australian government, Julia Bishop, and the Australian Ambassador in Egypt Ralph King,” he said.
“We want to acknowledge that Peter’s two other colleagues are still there, they also deserve to be free, Peter won’t rest until they are both released from prison, we are thinking of them and their families.
Peter Greste’s plans for the future are still unclear; his family has requested space and privacy to allow him to recover emotionally and physically.
“He’s been living the last 400 days in a very insular, confined space with very limited information so it’s going to take him some time to understand the enormity of what’s occurred during the course of the campaign and the support he‘s received,” Andrew said.
“I think we’ve got to give him time to readjust.”
“He’s on a high right now but we want to make sure things are kept at a manageable level.”
Andrew affirmed though that Peter’s dedication to journalism had not wavered.
“He’s still a passionate and committed journalist who believes in the role of journalism in a free, functioning, democracy.”
Mrs Greste believes her son will recover quickly. “He’s done a lot of work with exercise and meditation while in jail and those things have helped him maintain mental stability,” she added.
“I’m ecstatic, I just can’t say how happy I am about it all and thank goodness this is all over.”
After only being allowed to visit Peter once every fifteen days, Juris Greste was still in a state of disbelief.
“There is still a sense of unreality about it all, much like the day when we receivced the call to say that Peter was in an Egyptian prison, to me it is yet to sink in where we are and what’s happened,” he said.
Andrew made special mention of the support shown by his home town of Wee Waa throughout the ordeal.
“I can’t thank my staff at the farm enough, they are a dedicated bunch of guys and the people I work for have got a very deep understanding of the importance of family,” he said.
“They’ve never questioned me, I could be at work one day and then on a plane to Cairo the next, it has made my life that much easier, not having that added pressure.
“We didn’t think we were going to be on this road for so long when Peter was first arrested, we thought it would be over in a matter of days or weeks.”
After more than a year behind bars, Peter enjoyed his first meal as a free man with his brother Michael yesterday.
They celebrated over a meal of pork and beer before boarding a plane back to Australia via Cyprus.
Lois, Juris and Andrew were in high spirits as they waited for Michael and Peter to touch down on home soil.
“There’ll be a tear or two shed, huge hugs, and then we’ll try and keep him here as long as possible, he only gets one crack at this,” Andrew added.