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Three Al Jazeera journalists have been sentenced to three years in Egyptian prison on Saturday in what is seen as a “deliberate attack on press freedom.”
Egyptian Baher Mohamed, Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Australian Peter Greste were found guilty at a retrial in a Cairo court on charges of working without a license, fabricating news, and “aiding a terrorist organisation,” referring to the now-banned political party Muslim Brotherhood.
Fahmy and Greste were sentenced to three years in prison, while another six months were added to Mohamed’s sentence for allegedly possessing a single bullet.
Greste was sentenced in absentia after being deported back to his home country in February this year following 400 days in an Egyptian prison.
"Today's verdict is yet another deliberate attack on press freedom. It is a dark day for the Egyptian judiciary; rather than defend liberties and a free and fair media, they have compromised their independence for political reasons," said Mostefa Souag, Al Jazeera Media Network's acting director general.
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"This is unfair. We won't accept it" Marwa wife of @MFFahmy #freeajstaff pic.twitter.com/71PkBvXZCe
— lyse doucet (@bbclysedoucet)
August 29, 2015
In a trial with no evidence of wrong doing, our convictions can only be politically motivated. We will keep fighting to #FreeAJStaff
— Peter Greste (@PeterGreste)
August 29, 2015
News of the verdict was answered with condemnations from numerous international organizations, including the European Union and the U.N.
Amal Clooney, the lawyer representing Fahmy in his case, said the verdict “sends a message that journalists can be locked up for simply doing their job, for telling the truth and reporting the news. And it sends a dangerous message that there are judges in Egypt who will allow their courts to become instruments of political repression and propaganda.”
The three journalists were arrested in Cairo in 2013 while documenting the unrest that followed when the Egyptian military overthrew then-President Mohamed Morsi and the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood party.
Since Morsi's overthrow, hundreds of his supporters have been sentenced to death by Egyptian courts as part of a larger crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and dissident activists.
Egypt has at least 22 journalists behind bars to date according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which says it has become one of the most dangerous countries for journalists since Morsi’s rise to power.
