(Photo Public Domain)
Ousted president Mohamed Morsi’s former spokesperson Yasser Ali left Al-Haram police station on Wednesday after he was of acquitted of charges of financially and logistically assisting the escape of a fugitive: former prime minister Hesham Qandil.
The Cairo Misdemeanour Court had sentenced Ali to six months in prison on Saturday.
State-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported the acquittal. However, no further details on the circumstances of his release were made available.
Ali was Morsi’s campaign manager and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party media committee in the 2012 presidential race. After Morsi’s electoral victory a presidential decree was issued to appoint Ali as a presidential spokesman.
He was arrested on 31 December 2013 from an apartment in Dokki, Cairo, and was eventually transferred to Tora Prison.
Qandil was arrested a week before Ali and was reportedly caught on a “mountainous path” with a smuggler while attempting to flee to Sudan, the Ministry of Interior stated following his arrest. Qandil was sentenced to one year in prison in September 2013 but the sentence was overturned in July 2014 and he was released with no further charges pending.
