Jailed Egyptian Journalist Out On Bail Fears For Freedom Of Expression

Transcript

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

In Egypt, a retrial has been postponed for two Al Jazeera journalists who spent more than a year in jail. The two were released on bail earlier this month. The journalists, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were imprisoned with a third colleague, Peter Greste. He recently was released and deported to Australia. As an Egyptian, Baher Mohamed doesn't have another country to go to. The Egyptian journalists are accused of belonging to the now banned Muslim Brotherhood and disseminating false news. Their next court date is in early March. Baher Mohamed told us both of these charges are false.

BAHER MOHAMED: I was doing the regular packages every other journalist is doing at that time. The situation in Egypt at that time was tense, so we were doing the regular job of any regular professional journalist.

MCEVERS: When you say you were doing everything that every other journalist was doing, you were going around Cairo reporting stories about protests that were going on. Is that right?

MOHAMED: Yes, exactly.

MCEVERS: And then you were arrested, and you guys were held for 14 months. Can you tell us what that was like?

MOHAMED: The conditions in scorpion prison - or as they call it - the official name is the maximum security prison - was really horrible. Sleeping on the cement floor, the temperature of the room was always, like, less than 17. The cell was full of insects and cockroaches and mosquitoes.

MCEVERS: When you say 17 degrees, you meant 17 degrees Celsius, whereas we do Fahrenheit. But that's like around 60 degrees Fahrenheit - that seems really cold.

MOHAMED: It was really cold. And a doctor told me that because I was sick at one time because of the prison food. And the doctor gave me some medicine. I told him I don't have a fridge to put the medicine in. And he told me don't worry - that the temperature in your cell is less than 17. So it was really, really, really bad to stay in this scorpion prison.

MCEVERS: It's called scorpion prison.

MOHAMED: Yes.

MCEVERS: Scorpion - and why do they call it that?

MOHAMED: I don't know - because maybe, I think, general information that scorpions - when you lock it in a place, it just kill itself, so maybe they want us to kill ourselves, maybe.

MCEVERS: And then a couple of weeks ago, you were in court. Defendants in Egypt are held in a cage, so you were standing in your cage in court, and you found out that you were going to be released on bail. What did you do when that verdict was read?

MOHAMED: I was surprised. When you stay in prison, you start giving up expectations. You start giving up dreaming. So when I was in the trial on that day, I didn't expect I would be released. But when I heard that news, I was, like, just flying in the cage. I was, like, jumping and didn't believe myself that I'm going home to my family, to my kids, to my parents. So all these things came to my mind just in that very small moment. And I remember one view I saw on the way back home, and I felt this view of the sunrise - I didn't see sunrise in 14 months, as you said. So it was really nice to see the sunrise at that moment, and I felt like, this is freedom.

MCEVERS: And you also got to meet somebody who was new in your life.

MOHAMED: It was my son. My son was born when I was in prison. It was really hard, and I was really happy because I got a new child. But I was so sorry that I wasn't there. I wasn't the first one to carry him and to welcome him in this world. So it was really, really hard. But when I came out, it was beautiful because it was the first time to be able to hug my child and to hug my other children. It was the first few days ago I only managed to make my newborn son to smile.

MCEVERS: Oh. I understand that as soon as we're finished with this interview, you are due to go and check in with the local police and that this is a nightly event for you. Is this a condition of your release?

MOHAMED: Yes. I have to go every day to do, like, a follow-up with the nearby police station. I have to go every night just to say hello, I'm here. And then this thing is, like, preventing me from taking my wife, for example, for dinner. It's preventing me from, like, going somewhere, like, inside Egypt to the beach or the - to the coast. And if I miss one day, they will put me back in prison.

MCEVERS: I mean I guess the question I want to ask you - you know, a well-known Egyptian blogger was just sentenced to five years in prison for so-called unauthorized protest.

MOHAMED: Alaa Abdel Fattah.

MCEVERS: Yeah. And I guess I'm wondering - I mean, is it basically illegal to be a journalist in Egypt these days?

MOHAMED: No, no. Being a journalist in Egypt is OK. But I have something I used to say - me and Peter together and Fahmy as well - that freedom of press and expression and information will always be in prison while you have journalists behind bars.

MCEVERS: So you're saying it's not illegal, but it is risky?

MOHAMED: It is risky, but many journalists are willing to take all the risks too because they appreciate and they understand the importance of the people right to know.

MCEVERS: Baher Mohamed, journalist in Egypt, thank you so much for talking to us.

MOHAMED: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.