Egypt frees Egyptian-American sentenced to life in prison
CAIRO - Egyptian authorities freed an Egyptian-American on Saturday who was sentenced to life in prison and had been on hunger strike for over a year, forcing him to renounce his Egyptian citizenship as a precondition of his release.
Mohammed Soltan, the son of a prominent member of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, had been convicted on charges of financing an anti-government sit-in and spreading "false news," one of thousands imprisoned after the 2013 military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
Soltan, a 27-year-old Ohio State University graduate and former Barack Obama campaigner, was arrested in August 2013 when security forces came looking for his father at his home. His family said they didn't find the father at the time, but arrested him instead. His father, Salah, was detained later.
