Prominent photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, also known as Shawkan is sentenced to five years in prison by an Egyptian court. He is also a recipient of UNESCO’s World Freedom Prize. Shawkan was arrested in August 2013 as he covered deadly clashes in Cairo between security forces and supporters of ousted Islamist president Muhammad Mursi. He was accused of “murder and membership of a terrorist organization” — charges that can carry the death penalty — but should be able to walk free after already having spent five years in jail.

Shawkan should be able to leave prison “within a few days,” his lawyer Karim Abdelrady said as he welcomed the verdict.But the lawyer added that the sentence was nevertheless “unfair because Shawkan was only doing his job” and covering the events unfolding in the Egyptian capital five years ago.

Human rights groups and NGO s had made huge protests and had lobbied continuously for his release. Last week Amnesty International and press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) held a joint rally outside the Egyptian embassy in Paris to demand that he be set free.

At the time, Amnesty put out a statement warning Egyptian judicial authorities .RSF ranks Egypt 161st out of 180 countries on its press freedom index and says that at least 31 journalists are currently detained in the Arab world’s most populous nation.

Shawkan was one of more than 700 defendants on trial in the same case, most of them facing charges of killing police and vandalising property during the clashes.

The same court that jailed him also confirmed on Saturday death sentences initially issued in July against 75 defendants, including leaders of Mursi’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

They include senior Brotherhood members Mohamed el-Baltagui, Issam Al-Aryan and Safwat Hijazi. Of the 75 defendants, 44 were in the dock while the rest were tried in absentia.

Amnesty and Human Rights Watch say at least 40,000 people were arrested in the first year after Mursi’s ouster on July 3, 2013. Egypt’s courts have sentenced hundreds of them to death or lengthy jail terms after speedy mass trials, that the human rights group said made a mockery of due process. They include Mursi and several leaders of his Brotherhood movement.