“Thank God that it is over,” declared Taher Aboelnasr, his lawyer. “I pray to God that things become easier for him from now on and his life gets better.”

For years, human rights groups, the United Nations, journalist organizations and legions of supporters have waged a campaign to release Shawkan. He became a visible symbol of the ongoing authoritarianism of President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who has jailed tens of thousands of opponents and critics of his regime, including many journalists.

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In the end, Shawkan, 32, was released only because he had completed his prison term before finally being formally sentenced last September. Nevertheless, he will be required to report to a police station for the next five years at the end of each day and spend the night there. His lawyers plan to challenge the measure.

“We are relieved to hear that Shawkan is finally free after spending over five years in jail and call on authorities to end their shameful treatment of this photojournalist by removing any conditions to his release,” Sherif Mansour, the Middle East and North Africa program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement. “The Egyptian government should take steps immediately to improve its image, which has been badly tarnished by this unjust imprisonment — and it can start by releasing all journalists jailed in relation to their work.”

At least 26 journalists are currently jailed in Egypt for the doing their work, according to Reporters Without Borders. The Committee to Protect Journalists has put the number of journalists in jail at 25.

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Shawkan was arrested on Aug. 14, 2013, while covering clashes between Egyptian security forces and supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, after police and army units tried to violently disperse sit-in protests at Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya Square.

Morsi, the elected leader, had been deposed that year in a military coup led by Sissi.

More than 800 protesters were killed in what Human Rights Watch described as “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.”

Shawkan, along with hundreds of others, was charged with taking part in unauthorized protests, possessing weapons and belonging to the now banned Muslim Brotherhood, which Morsi led.

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Shawkan has denied the allegations and said he was there to take photos for a British-based photo agency, Demotix.

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On Monday, 214 other people who were arrested along with Shawkan and served a similar sentence were also released. Seventy-five others in the mass trial were sentenced to death and are now appealing their verdict, according to activists and lawyers.

Shawkan was supposed to have been released in September, but a six-month jail sentence was tacked on because he couldn’t afford to pay the fine, human rights activists said.

Two foreign journalists arrested with him were released that same day. The watchdog group Amnesty International said the prosecution during his trial failed to provide sufficient evidence of Shawkan’s alleged crimes. The group described the mass trial as “a mockery of justice.”

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“As a prisoner of conscience, he should never have been forced to spend a single minute behind bars — let alone five and a half years,” Amnesty International’s North Africa Campaigns Director Najia Bounaim said in a statement. Bounaim described Shawkan’s five-year-long probation — which requires him to spend 12 hours a day, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., at a police station — as “ludicrous” and urged they be lifted immediately.

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Egypt is one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. The Sissi government has jailed 19 journalists on charges of false news, the most in the world, the organization said. In recent months, Egyptian journalists have been imprisoned for covering election irregularities, police abuse and interviewing a gay man on a television news show.

Foreign journalists, too, have been targeted. A Times of London journalist was expelled from the country last year. And last month, a New York Times journalist was barred entry into Egypt, detained for hours and deported.

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Sissi in the past has justified the ongoing crackdown of opponents, activists and critics as necessary to stabilize the country economically and politically, as well as to undermine terrorists targeting the country. Last week, at a summit in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, he warned European officials not to lecture Egypt on its human rights record, declaring that the Arab world’s situation was different from the West.

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After his release at 6 a.m. Monday, Shawkan went to his home that he hadn’t seen since his arrest. Pictures posted on social media showed a joyful Shawkan taking selfies with relatives and friends, and playing with his niece.

By 6 p.m., though, he will be back at the police station to spend his first night.

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“Can you imagine? For five and half years he has been behind bars, and he still has to suffer during his probation period,” said Aboelnasr, his lawyer.