Journalist and docmaker Maziar Bahari is free on bail after spending four months in an Iranian prison, though reports indicate that he will not be allowed to leave the country.

Bahari posted bail of some $300,000 over the weekend and is said to be staying at his mother’s home in Tehran. The 42-year-old Newsweek reporter, whose recent work also includes a National Film Board doc on the perils faced by reporters in Iraq, was arrested on June 21 by security forces amid the protests that followed this summer’s Iranian election. He is a dual citizen of both Iran and Canada.

His ordeal has since become a cause celebre among activists of many stripes, further fuelled by his wife’s pregnancy. A statement issued by Newsweek suggested that he may have been released for humanitarian reasons.