Al Jazeera has said that the letter from the President of Egypt to the parents of detained journalist Peter Greste is an “encouraging sign”.

In the letter, Adly Mansour, the interim president of Egypt said:

“Notwithstanding the independence of the judiciary authorities and the fullness of all the rights guaranteed by the law, I would like to assure you in my capacity as president of Egypt that I will spare no effort to work towards the speedy resolution of the case, in a fashion consistent with the law, and that guarantees the resumption of the family in the near future.”

As well as signing the letter as “President”, he also used the title “Chief Justice”, indicating his position as the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, the highest judicial authority in the land.

An Al Jazeera spokesman said:

“This shows that the interim president of Egypt, and head of the judiciary, recognises what we’ve been saying all along – that our journalists were doing their job and have no case to answer. We look forward to the authorities implementing his wishes and releasing our journalists forthwith.”

Peter Greste has been detained by the Egyptian authorities since December 29th along with his Al Jazeera English colleagues Baher Mohammed and Mohammed Fahmy. Al Jazeera Arabic’s Abdullah Elshamy has been detained for even longer – since August 14th last year.