Ghonim 'Released' in Egypt

Google marketing exec Wael Ghonim, missing since early in the protests in Egypt ten days ago, has been released, according to reports on Arab TV stations and other sources.

In the last hour, Ghonim was said by Al Arabiya television (www.alarabiya.net ), Al Jazeera and others to be on his way to Tahrir Square, the center of anti-government protests in Cairo.

At the weekend Wael's brother Hazem told reporters that the family understood from Naguib Sawiris, Chairman of a major telecoms group in the country, that Egyptian authorities had promised him Wael would be released by 4pm today - in fact the release has come some hours later.

Authorities including Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq appear to have confirmed that Ghonim was being detained by Egyptian state security, and a video apparently showing his capture by plain clothes police can be seen on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv8JdgkI4mA .

Ghonim, who is Google's Head of Marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, had been missing for more than 10 days, according to Hazem who said he had been unable to call his brother since 28th January.

Ghonim's disappearance had brought widespread international condemnation and the opposition '6th of April' group named him as their spokesman in order to put pressure on Egyptian authorities to release him, according to CBS reports on Friday.

Before his disappearance, Ghonim used Twitter to describe being caught up in the anti-government protests currently rocking the country. In one of his last tweets, according to the Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com ) Ghonim said 'We got brutally beaten up by police people' and in another he said he believed the Egyptian government was 'planning a war crime against its people'.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.