Hisham Abdel Aziz, a journalist with Qatari state-owned Al Jazeera network, has been released from an Egyptian prison four years after he was detained in the North African country, the broadcaster announced on Monday.

According to Al Jazeera, Mr Aziz’s family confirmed his release and said he was now at his family home in Cairo.

He is one of several Al Jazeera staff arrested since the current government came into power in 2013 following the deposition of the then-Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi by the military in July of that year after several days of mass anti-Morsi protests by citizens.

Mr Aziz was first detained in 2019 during operations to crack down on dissidents – he was accused of belonging to the proscribed Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement which is considered a terrorist group in Egypt but was subsequently released by authorities in the country.

Egypt has accused the new network of supporting the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement.

He was rearrested the same year upon his arrival to Cairo from Qatar and was placed in pre-trial detention until his recent release – Al Jazeera had always maintained that his detention was being extended on “baseless allegations” and that it had negatively impacted his health.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera said two of its journalists, Bahaa Eldin Ibrahim and Rabie el-Sheikh, remain in detention in Egypt.