Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has ordered the release of a Czech Christian aid worker sentenced to 24 years in jail on charges of spying and inciting hatred, a minister said Sunday. Petr Jasek, 53, was arrested in December 2015 and a court sentenced him last month.

Jasek, a member of a small Protestant Czech church called Cirkev Bratrska, had travelled to Sudan to help local Christians, according to Czech media reports.

Sudanese authorities said he had entered the country "illegally" from neighbouring South Sudan and gone to the conflict-riven state of South Kordofan.

In January, a court found him guilty of entering Sudan without a visa, spying, taking pictures of military installations and inciting hatred, according to his lawyer.

But Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour announced on Sunday at a joint press conference with his visiting Czech counterpart Lubomir Zaoralek that Bashir had ordered Jasek's release.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017