Rageeh Omaar speaking moments after his release

The three television journalists - BBC correspondent Rageh Omaar, producer Robin Barnwell and cameraman Frank Smith - had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Mr Omaar became widely known earlier this year when he covered the Gulf crisis in Iraq as part of the first BBC team allowed in to the country for several years.

Shortly after his release, he said the crew had been well treated during the ordeal, although the first 48 hours had been worrying.

He said initial reports that the journalists had been dressed as women when arrested were "completely untrue" - as the final programme would show.

"All of us are filmed quite clearly in our normal working clothes. I think that was trying to throw people's attention off what was the actual case in point."

Rageh Omaar: released

They crew was arrested on May 26 after returning to the capital Sana'a from the remote mountainous south-east of Yemen, where they filmed members of a tribe which has recently kidnapped a number of foreigners.

"We were arrested on the outskirts of the city by a large number of troops," Mr Omaar said.

They were taken from a military check-point first to the Ministry of Interior and then to the Attorney General's office. They were later moved to a hotel in Sana'a.

The Yemeni authorities said they were not given permission to visit the area they filmed in.

"We maintained from the very beginning that was not the case," Mr Omaar said. "The court found that to be exactly true and acquitted us of all charges. We expressed that as we understood it under Yemeni law there were no restrict areas and there were no parts of the country that journalists could not go to.

"We came fully acredited as journalists, we explained exactly what we wanted to do point by point and in some detail to the authorities - that seemed to be absolutely fine. After which we contacted much more senior officials and they said we could go but I think it was a case of some parts of the authorities perhaps having a change of heart but at no stage ever were we told we could no go there."