UPDATE - Egyptian photojournalist freed after 5 years in prison

UPDATES WITH CPJ STATEMENT

CAIRO (AA) - Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as Shawkan, was released on Monday after five years in prison.

A Facebook campaigning for Shawkan's freedom confirmed that the photojournalist had been released from a police station in Giza, west of Cairo.

The Facepage posted photos showing Shawkan rejoicing his release with his family.

In 2018, an Egyptian court slapped the photojournalist with a 5-year jail term on multiple charges, including assault.

"We are relieved to hear that Shawkan is finally free after spending over five years in jail," Sherif Mansour, the Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ), said in a statement.

He called on the Egyptian authorities "to end their shameful treatment of this photojournalist by removing any conditions to his release".

"The Egyptian government should take steps immediately to improve its image, which has been badly tarnished by this unjust imprisonment--and it can start by releasing all journalists jailed in relation to their work," he said.

Shawkan had been imprisoned since August 2013 when he was arrested while covering the dispersal by Egyptian security forces of a major protest camp of supporters of former President Mohamed Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya square following a military coup.

While Egyptian authorities say only 623 people were killed in the dispersal, the Muslim Brotherhood put the death toll at nearly 2,600.

In the aftermath of the coup, Egyptian security forces launched a harsh crackdown on supporters of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood groups, killing hundreds and detaining thousands.