At least nine journalists in Egypt's prisons after Al Jazeera staff released

While two jailed Al Jazeera reporters were freed on Friday pending a retrial, rights groups say at least nine more journalists still languish in Egyptian prisons.

Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were released nearly two weeks after their Australian colleague Peter Greste was deported under a presidential decree.

The three were arrested in late 2013 and sentenced to between seven and 10 years in jail for aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood. An appeals court in January ordered their retrial.

New York based media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which in 2013 rated Egypt as the third most dangerous country for journalists after Syria and Iraq, says there are nine more media workers jailed in the country.

Separately, officials at Egypt’s press syndicate say at least 15 journalists are imprisoned.

Some are facing trial on several charges including rioting and belonging to a “terrorist organisation.”

Detainees also include citizen journalists arrested in police sweeps to quell protests backing ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

Prominent journalists held in Egypt’s prisons include Mahmoud Abu Zeid, widely known as Shawkan.

Another, Abu Zeid, a freelance photographer who has worked for photo agencies such as Demotix and Corbis, is one of the longest-detained journalists in Egypt.

He was arrested on 14 August, 2013 when hundreds were killed as security forces cleared two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo.

He has not been convicted of any crime. For some time Abu Zeid shared a prison cell with al-Jazeera reporter Abdullah al-Shamy, who was arrested on the same day but released in June last year.

Ahmed Gamal Zeyada, a 23-year-old online journalist, was arrested on 28 December, 2013 while covering clashes between students and security forces at the prestigious Sunni al-Azhar University in Cairo.

Zeyada, who worked for Yaqeen News Network, is on trial with 76 students on several charges including torching the institution’s faculty of commerce building.

Six of the remaining seven jailed journalists worked for media that opposed Morsi’s ouster.

Mahmoud Abdel Nabi, Sami Mustafa and Abdullah al-Fakharany, reported for an online citizen journalism platform called Rassd.

Mohamed al-Adly worked for Amgad television and Ayman Saqr worked for al-Mesryoon newspaper. Abdel Rahman Shahine worked for Freedom and Justice News Gate, affiliated to Morsi’s political party.

Ahmed Fouad worked for an online news website covering the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.