Brisbane man to be finally reunited with family after 433 days in Cairo jail

Lamisse Hamouda choked back tears as she recalled the harrowing and traumatic ordeal of fighting to have her father released from an Egyptian prison where had languished for 15 months.

Her dad, Hazem Hamouda, was locked up without charge for 433 days in Cairo's notorious Tora prison, but was finally allowed to board a plane to leave Egypt and return home this week.

Hazem Hamouda with his Australian-born daughter, Lamisse.

The 55-year-old dual Egyptian and Australian citizen, was detained shortly after landing at Cairo International Airport on January 25, 2018, the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 revolt.

The Kuraby man was travelling to Egypt to join his children on a short holiday.

Ms Hamouda said her family was relieved Mr Hamouda was on his way home, thanking their pro bono legal team, politicians and journalist Peter Greste for their support.

Lamisse Hamouda, daughter of Hazem Hamouda is seen posing for photograph alongside journalist Peter Greste (right) and her family's lawyer Jennifer Robinson(left) at Queensland Parliament House in Brisbane on Thursday.Credit: AAP

"This has been the most harrowing and traumatic 15 months that has impacted every aspect of our lives," she said.

"It has cost our financially, emotionally, psychologically and physically.

"And even though we've gotten through this, we still stand in ongoing solidarity with many of the other families who continue to suffer and fight for loved ones imprisoned in Egypt."

Ms Hamouda said her dad had always been a family man.

"He can be intense and opinionated but most of all, he's a genuine softie and big-hearted father who loves us more than anything," she said, struggling to hold back tears.

Ms Hamouda said her father, who was on his way back to Brisbane with his daughter Saja, was OK but pretty exhausted.

"But he's also very excited to come home and just be with the family and start to put all this behind him," she said.

Ms Hamouda said her father would probably "really dig in" to some of his wife Evelyn's cooking and she and her siblings could not wait to get "one of dad's famous bear hugs".

She said her family's greatest fear had been that the ordeal would drag on for years.

"There was no guarantee as to when it would end," she said.

"There are people in Tora prison who have been there, in the same situation as my dad, who are dual nationals, for now going on five years, four years, so we knew it was very possible that dad could end up like that, and just stuck in the system."

Ms Hamouda said she would not travel to Egypt again in the future.

"It doesn't hold many pleasant memories any more, it's a place of a lot of trauma for me now," she said.

Mr Hamouda's family said he had no history of political activism in Egypt but believed his activity on Facebook in Australia, which in the past included material sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood, could be the cause of his arrest.

In Tora prison, Mr Hamouda was kept in a 9-by-3-metre cell with 13 other men, sleeping on the floor, with limited time outdoors.

For a month in February, his family did not know where Mr Hamouda was. He was held in national security detention and was interrogated.

His lawyers secured his release from prison in Cairo last month, but his departure was prevented by passport control officers.

Mr Hamouda faced a military court for an exemption certificate from conscription at the weekend and secured the documents required to finally be able to leave the country.

Barrister Jennifer Robinson, who has defended WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, said Mr Hamouda did not renounce his Egyptian citizenship but did begin the process due to earlier concerns the Australian government was not doing enough to raise his case.

"As we made clear in a legal opinion that we shared with DFAT, there was no impediment to Australia acting," she said.

"His predominant nationality is Australian, he has lived here for more than three decades, has six beautiful children here and considers Australia his home."

Ms Robinson said Mr Hamouda's legal team would be pursuing a complaint with the United Nation's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and would like Australia's support, and she believed he was also entitled to compensation from the Egyptian government.

Mr Greste, who was himself locked up in Tora prison until 2015, said he "viscerally" knew and understood what Mr Hamouda and his family went through.

"We'll probably never know which one thing it was that finally convinced the Egyptians to let Hazem go, we certainly don't know what it was in my case," he said.

Ms Hamouda said Mr Greste's case and his advocacy had given her hope.

"Even though their cases are very different - Peter's a journalist and my dad is just a dude from Brisbane - it still helped," she said.

Labor member for Stretton Duncan Pegg welcomed the news Mr Hamouda would be back in his community with his family soon.

"I want to acknowledge the Hamouda family who despite being caught up in an absolute nightmare, continued to make sacrifices and work so tirelessly to bring Hazem home," he said.

"The Hamouda family have been through so much for so long and I am just so happy that this ordeal has finally come to an end."