Istanbul, Turkey - Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah has been released after he was arrested in Zürich, Switzerland, ahead of a speaking event on Palestinian human rights.

"I’m free! I wrote this on the plane and I’m posting it just after landing at Istanbul," Abunimah posted on X on Monday following his deportation from Switzerland.

"Right now I’m glad to be on my way home. I’m looking forward to hugging my mom and dad, taking a shower and sleeping in my own bed," he shared.

Abunimah's Saturday arrest sparked global outrage, as the Chicago-based founder and executive director of Electronic Intifada was hauled off by Swiss authorities after he was questioned at the airport and allowed to enter the country the previous day.

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"On Monday evening I was brought to Zurich airport in handcuffs, in a small metal cage inside a windowless prison van and led all the way to the plane by police," Abunimah said.

"This is after three days and two nights in a Swiss prison cut off from communication with the outside world, in a cell 24 hours a day with one cell mate, not even permitted to contact my family."

To Abunimah's knowledge, he had not been charged with a crime and was being held in "administrative detention."

"On Saturday in a police interview in the presence of my lawyer they accused me of 'offending against Swiss law' without ever telling me what crime I had committed in Switzerland or listing any charges," Abunimah wrote.

"On Sunday morning, they took me from my cell for questioning by Swiss defense ministry intelligence agents without the presence of my lawyer, and they again refused to allow me to contact her or my family."

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"All of this was after I was abducted off the street around 1:30pm on Saturday while on my way to the Palestine teach-in by undercover agents, handcuffed, forced into an unmarked car and sped straight to the prison."

Abunimah is convinced his treatment was due to his outspoken defense of Palestinian human rights and criticism of the Israeli apartheid regime.

"My 'crime'? Being a journalist who speaks up for Palestine and against Israel’s genocide and settler-colonial savagery and those who aid and abet it," he posted.

Abunimah's detention prompted criticism of Western countries' increased repression of press and speech freedoms, particularly when it comes to Palestinian liberation.

"I came to Switzerland at the invitation of Swiss citizens to talk about justice for Palestine, to talk about accountability for a genocide in which Switzerland too is complicit," the journalist explained.

Abunimah contrasted his own treatment with that of Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who received a "red carpet welcome" at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Poland for the Auschwitz memorial service despite an International Criminal Court warrant calling for his arrest.

"That is the perverse, unjust world we live in," Abunimah lamented, adding, "This ordeal lasted three days but that taste of prison was more than enough to leave me in even greater awe of the Palestinian heroes who endure months and years in the prisons of the genocidal oppressor. More than ever I know that the debt we owe them is one we can never repay and all of them must be free and they must remain our focus."

"Journalism is not a crime! Speaking out for Palestine is not a crime! Standing against racist genocidal Zionism is not a crime!" he insisted.