Trump meets with freed Egyptian-American prisoner at White House

President Trump on Friday greeted Aya Hijazi, an Egyptian-American who returned to the U.S. late Thursday after spending three years in a Cairo prison.

“We are very happy to have Aya back home, and it’s a great honor to have her in the Oval Office,”  Trump said in the White House while sitting next to Hijazi, 30.

Hijazi, a charity worker who spent three years imprisoned in Egypt, returned to the U.S. after the Trump administration worked behind the scenes for weeks to secure the release of her and husband Mohamed Hassanein, as well as four other humanitarian workers.

{mosads}The couple and the other workers were jailed in 2014 on charges of child abuse and trafficking, though the charges were widely considered false by human rights groups and U.S. officials.

The Obama administration had tried to negotiate their release with the Egyptian government, but to no avail. But the charges were ultimately dropped Sunday, a decision that came after a meeting between Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi earlier this month.

After that meeting, Trump praised Sisi as a “fantastic” leader.