“People in the street have walked up to us and said ‘I’m so sorry and I support you’,” said Mrs Greste.
“Hopefully we’ll have Champagne tonight. It has been waiting in the fridge since the verdict.”
Andrew Greste said his brother would need "a little bit of time to absorb what has actually occurred and the enormity of what's occurred today". He said Mr Greste and their brother Mike had arrived in Cyprus and had a meal of pork and beer, which were “rare commodities in an Egyptian prison”.
"He's on a high right now but we want to make sure that things are kept at a fairly manageable level," he said.
“It [the release] has come at very short notice and out of the blue. Egypt is an unpredictable place. Until he was on that plane anything could have happened.”
Peter Greste's, from left, father Juris, brother Andrew and mother Lois speak to the media in Brisbane (Getty)
Mr Greste was released unconditionally from Cairo’s Tora prison by Egypt’s military-backed government after more than a year in prison . He and his colleagues were sentenced in June to between seven and 10 years in jail. The case followed a rift between Egypt and Qatar , which owns Al-Jazeera and was a strong backer of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi.
Andrew Greste said his brother was a committed journalist who “won’t forget his two other colleagues”. "His excitement is tempered and restrained and will be until they’re free,” he said.
"Peter won't rest until they're released from prison and we hope that will follow in the very near future.”
Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister, said he was delighted by Mr Greste’s release and the nation was relieved. “I want to say to Peter Greste’s family, ‘you never gave up hope and your strength is an inspiration for all of us’,” he said.
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1zMjv3D
0 comments:
Post a Comment