Alan Johnston free

BBC journalist Alan Johnston was released earlier today. He was kidnapped in Gaza City on March 12th , by a group called Army of Islam. During the last days preassure has been stepped up, and just two days ago several arrests of people close to the Army of Islam was made. It seems the de facto Hamas takeover of Gaza has changed the security dynamics and that might have made the difference in this case.

I´m truly happy about Alan´s release, he´s one of the best reporters ever to have reported from the region, and he was the only western journalist to live there permanently at this point in time, to kidnap him was to rob the Gazans from getting the true story out of how bad the situation really is there in the most eloquent way possible. He´s reporting really has substantial impact.

More than 200 000 people have signed the petition to release him, and i thank everyone who has helped in whatever way during these almost four months. This is a big day for Alan, his family and the BBC.

An update will follow!

This will be cross posted on Fustat.