Journalist Peter Greste said yesterday it was a great relief to be freed from prison in Egypt but that he felt “incredible angst” about leaving two colleagues behind in prison.

Al Jazeera journalist Greste was released on Sunday after 400 days in a Cairo jail. He had been sentenced to seven years on charges that included aiding a terrorist group, security officials said.

“This release has been like a rebirth,” he said in an interview on Al Jazeera, his first public remarks since he was freed. He is in Cyprus for a few days until he travels home to Australia.

Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian national Baher Mohamed remain in prison. They were jailed for seven to 10 years on charges including spreading lies to help a terrorist organisation – a reference to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian authorities accuse Al Jazeera of being a mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Qatar-backed movement which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled in 2013 when he was Egypt’s army chief.

Greste feels incredible angst about leaving two colleagues behind in prison

Egypt’s Interior Ministry said on its Facebook page that al-Sisi released Greste under a decree issued in November authorising him to approve the deportation of foreign prisoners. Greste said if it was appropriate for him to be free, it was right for his two colleagues to be free, adding that he had only found out about this release order an hour before he was allowed to leave prison.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all... I can’t tell you the real sense of that mix of emotion, between a real sense of relief and excitement, and also real stress in having to say goodbye to my colleagues,” said Greste, who described the two men as “family”.

Muslim Brotherhood supporters convicted of playing a role in the killings of 16 policemen in August 2013 are seen behind bars during their trial in Cairo, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

He called for the release of Fahmy and Mohamed, who he said had suffered the most in prison because he had missed the birth of his child. A security source said on Sunday Fahmy was expected to be released and deported to Canada within days.

“For Egypt, this has been a big step forward, I hope Egypt keeps going down this path and releases the others,” Greste said.

Asked what he would most like to do now, he said: “Watching a few sunsets. I haven’t seen one of those at all for a very long time, watching the stars, feeling the sand under my toes. The little things.”

“You realise it is those little beautiful moments of life that are really precious, and spending time with my family of course. That’s what’s important, not the big issues.” Meanwhile an Egyptian court sentenced 183 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death yesterday on charges of killing police officers, part of a sustained crackdown by authorities on Islamists.

The men were convicted of playing a role in the killings of 16 policemen in Kardasa in August 2013 during the upheaval that followed the army's ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. Thirty-four were sentenced in absentia.

Egypt has mounted one of the biggest crackdowns in its modern history on the Brotherhood since the political demise of Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president. Thousands of Brotherhood supporters have been put on mass trials in a campaign which human rights groups say shows the government is systematically repressing opponents.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as army chief toppled Morsi, describes the Brotherhood as a major security threat. He blamed the Brotherhood for the violence and told Egyptians in a TV address that the war against militancy will be long and tough.