SHEIKH ZAYED, Egypt — Al Jazeera journalist Baher Mohamed knows that at any moment he could be sent back to jail.
For now, he will enjoy the perks of life as a free man: eating home-cooked meals, basking in the sunshine, kissing his children good night.
After more than a year in prison, Mohamed was released last month while he awaits retrial on terrorism charges for his work with the Qatar-based Al Jazeera English channel.
Mohamed, 31, was apprehended with Al Jazeera colleagues Peter Greste and Mohamed Fahmy in December 2013. The arrests marked the beginning of a long nightmare for the journalists, caught in a bitter dispute between Egypt and Qatar over the latter’s support of the ousted Muslim Brotherhood.
In January, an appeals judge overturned an earlier verdict sentencing the reporters to up to a decade in prison. Greste, an Australian, was freed under a law allowing Egypt to deport convicts with foreign passports. Fahmy also has Canadian citizenship and recently hired celebrity lawyer Amal Clooney to defend him.
For Mohamed, an Egyptian, there is no such recourse.
Mohamed’s plight underscores the pressure Egyptians face under a repressive government that has shown little tolerance for dissent. Egypt’s once-boisterous press corps, too, has either rallied behind authorities or risked intimidation and censorship. According to the Paris-based advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, media workers in Egypt “are among the leading victims of the regime’s authoritarian policies.”
Egyptian officials have pointed to the rise in armed attacks on security forces as evidence the country cannot afford further instability. The government here has blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the increasing violence. And because Qatar backed the Islamists while they were in power, Egypt sees Al Jazeera as a mouthpiece for Brotherhood politicians.
“I knew the regime didn’t like Al Jazeera, and I knew the way the regime was treating all journalists,” said Mohamed, who also has covered stories in Lebanon, Libya and Yemen. “But I was willing to do my job — to cover protests and be in the street.
“Without press, there’s no democracy So I took the risks.”
But as he sat at home in an east Cairo suburb, amid cheerful signs welcoming his release, Mohamed also said he has struggled with his newfound freedom. Perhaps worse is the foreboding feeling that the liberty will be short-lived.
“I’m trying to enjoy everything. I’m supposed to be happy,” Mohamed said as two of his children romped by his side. “But when I look up at the sky, or at people on the street, I still feel like something is wrong.”
