Egypt to release hunger striking Al-Jazeera journalist

Egypt is to release an Al-Jazeera journalist who has been on hunger strike for more than four months in protest of his detention without charges or trial.

According to a statement released by the prosecutor’s office on Monday, 26-year-old Abdullah Elshamy and 12 others will be freed for “health conditions.”

Elshamy was the only person named in the statement, but according to his lawyer none of the other 12 were journalists.

The journalist was arrested on August 14 while covering the violent dispersal of sit-ins by supporters of President Mohamed Morsi, who was overthrown by the army in July.

Elshamy’s lawyer also says he is expected to be released from jail on Tuesday.

Also on Monday an Egyptian police officer was allegedly killed by supporters of Morsi in a gun battle on the southern outskirts of Egypt’s capital, Cairo.

Tensions in Egypt have been running high since the former defense minister, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, won the presidential election in May.

Sisi led the ouster of the country’s first democratically-elected president last July.

Over 1,400 people have been killed and thousands jailed in the army’s crackdown on the supporters of Morsi, while hundreds of his supporters have been sentenced to death.

Sisi’s presidency places Egypt back in the hands of a top military official just three years after a popular uprising against former dictator Hosni Mubarak, an air force officer who ruled the North African country for almost three decades.