CAIRO - Egypt's army-backed authorities released two Canadians held without charge since political clashes in mid-August, a statement released by the Canadian foreign affairs department said.John Greyson and Tarek Loubani said they were in Cairo before going to the Gaza Strip where Loubani was due to teach a medical course while Greyson made a documentary about him.They went to see the protests on Aug. 16 and were arrested at a check point, then searched and beaten, they said. The two men were taken to Cairo's Tora prison, where members of ousted President Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood are being held.They started a 3-week hunger strike to protest against their detention on Sept. 16. It ended on Thursday.Their lawyer, Marwa Farouk, told Reuters they were freed from jail at about 01:00 a.m. on Sunday morning (2300 GMT on Saturday) and were in the Canadian embassy a few hours later."The prosecutor general granted us the appeal I raised in court and they are already on a plane to Toronto," she said.At least 2,000 people, most of them Morsi supporters, have been arrested since he was deposed by the army on July 3.
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post)