Morsi issues law freeing Egyptian newspaper editor

CAIRO // The editor of an independent Egyptian daily has been released from jail just hours after the country's Islamist president issued a new law that bans imprisoning journalists on charges related to their articles.

It was the first time President Mohammed Morsi had issued a law since he assumed legislative powers earlier this month.

Islam Afifi was photographed smiling and being greeted by staff from the privately-owned el-Dustour newspaper after his release late on Thursday. He was detained just hours earlier following a court decision that he be held in custody pending his trial in September.

Afifi has been charged with slandering the president and harming public interest with inflammatory articles published in his newspaper. The articles criticized Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest political group group.