As Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste was flying to freedom Sunday after 400 days in jail, the man in charge of Egypt was making a long speech lamenting his country’s many problems.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi touched on the desperate state of the economy, the deadly jihadist insurrection in Sinai, the role of religion in politics and human rights.
Amid this litany of woes, the jailing of Greste, who is Australian, and two other Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt had become an embarrassment for a government whose human rights record was already receiving plenty of adverse attention.
In July, soon after their sentences were handed down to an international outcry, President al-Sisi acknowledged the case had been a PR disaster for Egypt. He told local journalists the trial had been “very negative” for the country’s reputation.
“I wished they had been deported immediately after their arrest instead of being put on trial,” he said.
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“If it was not for your support, Egypt would not have survived until now,” he said. But he also admitted the government was still strapped for cash.
“Egypt does not have 150 billion Egyptian pounds (about $20 billion) to spend on its people.”
Simply put, amid this dire outlook, the Al Jazeera case became an irritant that al-Sisi’s government could do without. As President al-Sisi himself made clear, the war on the Muslim Brotherhood will continue to be pursued remorselessly. But his opponents at home and many international observers see a broader and unremitting campaign against dissent of any sort.
CNN’s Ali Younes contributed to this report.
