Families rejoice as Egypt frees Canadians
Return to Canada in works after surprise release
It was a shock. It was overwhelming to hear his voice. — Cecilia Greyson, sister
Mohammed Loubani heard talk on Saturday night that his brother, Tarek, was being released from the Cairo jail where he had been held without charge for 51 days. But the family in London, Ont., had heard that talk before and it had always amounted to nothing. So Mohammed didn’t let himself get excited. But when he called his father, who has been in Egypt to support Tarek since last week, he got a pleasant surprise.
“Tarek picked up and said, ‘Hey, it’s me,’ ” Mohammed recalled on Sunday. “I was absolutely blown away.”
Tarek Loubani, an emergency room physician, and documentary filmmaker John Greyson had been held in what they described as brutal conditions in the Egyptian prison after being arrested in August.
“He was a little bit groggy because he had been shaken out of bed. They didn’t know what was going on,” Mohammed said.
Dr. Loubani told his brother that guards had woken the two men around 1:30 a.m. and transported them to a police station, where Canadian consular officials had been instructed to pick them up.
When I called my dad’s cellphone, Tarek picked up … I was absolutely blown away. — Mohammed Loubani, brother
Canadian officials told John Greyson’s family that the “release was in process,” so his younger sister, Cecilia Greyson, was waiting for an update at her Halifax home on Saturday. Just before midnight, the phone rang. The call was from an Ontario area code, so Ms. Greyson suspected it was another consular official. But she too was in for a surprise.
“It was John calling from a hotel in Cairo,” Ms. Greyson said. “He must have been calling from Tarek’s cellphone. It was a shock. It was overwhelming to hear his voice.
“His voice sounded exactly the same … [But] they’re still acclimatizing to life on the outside world.
Ms. Greyson flew to Toronto on Sunday where she suspects her brother will eventually arrive, but family of both men say there is no set date for their return.
The men spent Sunday in a Cairo hotel with their passports but will remain in Egypt until “red tape” is cleared allowing them to come home, Ms. Greyson said, adding consular officials are helping them.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that the pair were prevented from flying out of Cairo after their names appeared on a “stop-list” issued by prosecutors. The news agency attributed the information to airport officials.
According to the news agency, the two men had checked in for a flight to Frankfurt, Germany, but were prevented from boarding the plane. They retrieved their luggage and were free to leave the airport, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper welcomed the news of the release of the two Canadians, issuing a statement from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
“The government of Canada has obviously been pushing for that and welcomes this decision by the government of Egypt and we look forward to seeing these two Canadian citizens return home in the not too distant future.”
Toronto’s York University, where Mr. Greyson is a film professor, said in a statement it looks forward to Mr. Greyson’s return to teaching at the school.
The two men were arrested on Aug. 16 during violent antigovernment demonstrations in Cairo and detained in what they’ve called squalid conditions.
Mr. Greyson and Dr. Loubani have said they planned to stay in the Egyptian capital only briefly on their way to Gaza last month.
They issued a statement from prison last month saying they decided to check out protests that were close to their hotel and saw at least 50 protesters killed. Dr. Loubani stopped to treat some injured protesters and Mr. Greyson filmed the carnage.
Their statement said that after leaving the scene of the protests they asked police for directions and were stopped and beaten and taken into custody.
Subsequently Egyptian prosecutors accused them of “participating with members of the Muslim Brotherhood” in an attack on a police station, but never laid any charges.
Ms. Greyson said a computer specialist hired by the family revealed her brothers’s email account was hacked after he was thrown in jail, adding that a Cairo-based Internet address read Mr. Greyson’s email on Sept. 9.
The two Canadians said they spent most of their time crammed with other inmates in a filthy, cockroach-infested prison cell as they awaited word on their fate.
The pair staged a 16 day hunger strike to try to pressure Egyptian officials to release them, but started eating again last week.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and other Canadian officials intensely lobbied Egyptian officials for weeks, demanding that the pair either be charged with a crime or released.
Mr. Baird spoke with his Egyptian counterpart for an hour late last month lobbying on the two men’s behalf.
Until the two arrive in Canada, Dr. Loubani’s family say they will still be concerned.
“We need to get them back here and then we can take a deep sigh of relief,” Mohammed Loubani said.