Germany: Al Jazeera journalist thanks Germany and Turkey following release

Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Harald Range among many others during a statement in Berlin, Tuesday, following his release after being arrested in the German capital at the request of Egyptian authorities. The journalist thanked Germany, many of its politicians and its press during the address, as well as Erdogan and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu for their support during his imprisonment. He went on to say that on his return to Doha, it would be the first time he had been interview on his own should since its introduction 18 years ago. Mansour was detained by German police at Berlin's Tegel Airport, Saturday, after Egyptian authorities issued an international arrest warrant against him. Mansour was arrested as he tried to board a Qatar Airways flight from Berlin to Doha. In 2014, the 52-year-old journalist, who has both British and Egyptian citizenship, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison by Cairo's criminal court on the charge of torturing a lawyer in Tahrir Square in 2011. Both Al Jazeera and Mansour dismissed the charge as false and an attempt to attack the character of the journalist. Previously, in 2014, Egyptian authorities filed a request to Interpol for an international arrest warrant for Mansour, which was rejected.