CAIRO
Al Jazeera journalists Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were discharged from prison on Friday morning, one day after an Egyptian court ordered their release pending trial.
"Egyptian authorities released the two journalists on Friday morning," lawyer Shaaban Said told The Anadolu Agency.
He added that Mohamed and Fahmy had arrived in their homes after the latter - who had given up his Egyptian citizenship to be eligible for release - paid up a court-ordered bail of 250,000 pounds (roughly $33,000).
"My brother has been released from the police station!!," Fahmy's brother Adel wrote on Twitter in the early hours of Friday.
He added that Fahmy and Mohamed had been ordered by prosecutors to sign in daily at their local police stations until the upcoming court session, scheduled for Feb. 23.
Mohamed's family, which runs a Facebook account dedicated to campaigning for his freedom, released a photo Friday morning of the journalist with his wife and three children, the youngest of which born during his imprisonment.
On Thursday, a Cairo court ordered the release of the two journalists at the first session of a retrial in which they face charges of "abetting terrorists" and "broadcasting false news."
Egyptian-Canadian dual national Fahmy was the only defendant who was charged a bail as he was treated as a foreigner after giving up his Egyptian citizenship under pressure from Egyptian officials, whom he said told him was his only way out of prison.
Mohamed and 15 other co-defendants were also released, albeit without bail.
Trial proceedings were adjourned to Feb. 23.
In June of last year, Fahmy, Mohamed and Australian national Peter Greste were all slapped with jail terms ranging from seven to ten years each after being convicted of "broadcasting false news" and "threatening Egypt's national security."
Greste and Fahmy were each sentenced to seven years in jail, while Mohamed was slapped with ten years behind bars.
Three other foreign Al Jazeera correspondents – two Britons and one Dutch national – were sentenced to ten years each in absentia.
Late last month, Greste was deported to Australia on the orders of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
The move was based on a 2014 law that gives the president the right to order the deportation of foreign nationals convicted of committing crimes in Egypt.
The trio was originally detained in late 2013 at a Cairo hotel only days after Egyptian authorities branded the Muslim Brotherhood – the group from which ousted President Mohamed Morsi hails – a "terrorist" group.
Several western governments and rights groups have called for the journalists' release amid an international solidarity campaign launched by Al Jazeera.
The Egyptian government accuses Al Jazeera of harboring bias in favor of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood – an allegation the channel denies – amid tension with the Qatari government over Doha's criticisms of Morsi's ouster by the army in mid-2013.
