It started like any other of Peter Greste’s 400 days in captivity.
The Australian journalist, held in an Egyptian prison since December 2013, was exercising when the prison warden beckoned him over and told him that he needed to get ready to leave.
“Pack your stuff,” he was told. Confused, he asked the warden what he meant — was he being transferred to another prison?
“He said: ‘You’re going… the embassy’s coming, they’ll be here in an hour, so get your stuff and go,'” Greste told his network, Al Jazeera, in an interview with correspondent Stefanie Dekker in Cyprus.
Mix of emotions
“I can’t tell you that real mix of emotions that was boiling inside,” said Greste.
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“It was pretty difficult to take it in, that this was really going to happen,” she said. “But then a couple of hours later we got a call from Peter to say that he in the airport and about to hop onto the plane.”
His father, Juris, confirmed that his son’s release was a wholly unexpected development.
“He was just as surprised as anybody that he was asked to pack his small amount of gear and be ready to leave,” he said, smiling.
And now he’s free? “Juris suggested I put him over my knee and give him a whack,” said his mother, laughing.
But, she conceded, “foreign correspondents have a habit” of worrying their parents.
