Al Jazeera journalist freed from prison in Egypt

CAIRO - Al-Jazeera English reporter Peter Greste left Egypt on Sunday after the president approved his deportation following more than a year behind bars in a case that was widely condemned by rights groups, officials said.

A Cairo airport official said Greste, a 49-year-old Australian national, is on an EgyptAir flight to Larnaca, Cyprus that took off shortly after 4 p.m on Sunday.

An Egyptian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed Greste's release to CBS News. The nation's official news agency said his release followed a presidential "approval." An Interior Ministry statement said his release was an implementation of the new deportation law passed last year.

Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohammed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohammed were sentenced to at least seven years in prison on terrorism-related charges last year in a trial described as a sham by rights groups.

"The combined efforts of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his meetings with Egyptian officials, journalist organizations, and social media campaigns on Twitter of #FreeAJStaff and #JournalismisNotaCrime put enormous pressure on the government of Egypt to release Peter Greste," reported CBS News' Pamela Falk from the U.N.

There was no official word on the status of Fahmy or Baher, though a security official told Reuters that Fahmy was expected to be released within days. Fahmy's fiancé, Marwa Omara, told Reuters that "his deportation [to Canada] is in its final stages. We are hopeful."

Al Jazeera is reporting that Fahmy would be deported to Canada after his dual Egyptian nationality was dropped, citing presidential sources.

Al Jazeera's Hasan Salim Patel, senior officer for Al Jazeera Media Network's Media and Public Relations Department, tells CBS News, "we are grateful the social media campaign has been calling for the release, however we need to continue the campaign to demand the release of all our journalists."

Acting Al-Jazeera Director General Mostefa Souag says the Qatar-based network "will not rest until Baher and Mohamed also regain their freedom."

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, welcomed the news of Greste's release but said "nothing can make up for his ordeal."

"It is vital that in the celebratory fanfare surrounding his deportation the world does not forget the continuing ordeal of Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, who remain behind bars at Tora prison in Cairo."

The three were arrested over their coverage of the violent crackdown on Islamist protests following the military overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. Egyptian authorities accused them of providing a platform for Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, now declared a terrorist organization.

The three were also convicted for spreading false information, faking reports to show that the country was on the verge of civil war, and for aiding the Brotherhood's goal of portraying Egypt as a failed state. Mohammed received an additional three years for his possession of a spent bullet. Three other foreign reporters received a 10-year sentence in absentia. Twelve other co-defendants were sentenced to between seven and ten years, some of them in absentia.

Rights groups and several media outlets condemned the verdicts as political, saying the three were doing their job during a tumultuous time.

According to a law passed late last year, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has the power to deport foreign defendants or convicts if it's considered to be in the interest of national security. The law was seen as providing a potential legal instrument with which to free the journalists.

El-Sissi had repeatedly said he wants to end the case, which has prompted a storm of international criticism.

Greste had only been in Egypt for weeks, working on a short relief for his colleagues, when he was detained.