Three Al Jazeera journalists were each handed three-year prison sentences by a Cairo court yesterday for broadcasting material harmful to Egypt and operating without a media license.
The retrial verdict attracted international condemnation and was denounced by the Doha-based broadcast organization as being heavily politicized and “another deliberate attack on press freedom”.
Journalists Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy were in court to hear the verdict, while colleague Peter Greste was sentenced in absentia. Greste was released by Egyptian authorities in February this year and was deported to his home country of Australia.
Fahmy had renounced his Egyptian nationality, in the hope that he too would be deported.
Fahmy and Mohamed had been on bail ahead of the verdict after spending 410 days in detention. Several co-defendants who had been accused of working with Al Jazeera received similar sentences.
The two journalists went back to Tora Prison in southern Cairo last night, Al Jazeera said, quoting Egyptian media reports.
In a poignant tweet before returning to custody, Mohamed said:
Keep shouting for us my colleagues I'm sorry.
from now on will not be able to keep in touch with you #FreeAJStaff— Baher Mohamed (@Bahrooz) August 29, 2015
Greste also tweeted his reaction to the sentences:
Shocked. Outraged. Angry. Upset. None of them convey how I feel right now. 3 yr sentences for @bahrooz, @MFFahmy11 and me is so wrong.
— Peter Greste (@PeterGreste) August 29, 2015
Speaking on Al Jazeera in reaction to Saturday’s verdict, Greste said he was shocked at the scale of the sentence. “Words really don’t do justice. To be given three-year sentences is outrageous. It is just devastating for me.”
Court ruling
Judge Hassan Farid said he sentenced the men to prison at least partly because they had not registered with the country’s journalist “syndicate”, claiming they “were not journalists”.
He also said the men brought in equipment without security officials’ approval, had broadcast “false news” on Al Jazeera and used a hotel as a broadcasting point without permission.
Mohamed was sentenced to an additional six months for possession of a spent bullet casing.
The Cairo court said that previous time spent in prison would account for time served.
Al Jazeera’s head of litigation Farah Muftah said the verdict would be appealed with Egypt’s highest court, the Court of Cassation. It has 60 days to do so once the judge publishes the basis for the sentences handed down.
Speaking earlier today, Greste called for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi to pardon those convicted.
“President Sisi now has an opportunity to undo that injustice, to correct that injustice. The eyes of the world are on Egypt. It is now up to President Sisi to do what he said he would do from the outset and that is pardon us if we were ever convicted,” AFP reports.
Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney – who is representing Al Jazeera’s Cairo bureau chief, Canadian national Fahmy – also said she would press for a pardon:
“The verdict today sends a very dangerous message in Egypt. It 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,” AP reported her as saying.
Criticism
Al Jazeera Media Network’s Acting Director General Dr Mostefa Souag said in a statement that the “verdict defies logic and common sense.”
“The whole case has been heavily politicized and has not been conducted in a free and fair manner. There is no evidence proving that our colleagues in any way fabricated news or aided and abetted terrorist organisations and at no point during the long drawn out retrial did any of the unfounded allegations stand up to scrutiny.
“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,” he added.
Giles Trendle, Acting Managing Director of Al Jazeera English, denounced the judge’s decision, saying there had been no evidence that they had “in any way” fabricated news, according to the court’s own technical committee.
He also said that the team did not need a broadcasting licence, as they were not broadcasting in Egypt to Egyptians.
And he attacked the judge’s suggestion that the three were not journalists, saying:
“They emphatically are journalists. The court cannot wish away the fact that these three men don’t have a longstanding track record and a distinguised body of work. They were journalists and they are journalists.”
What happened
The journalists were arrested in December 2013 in their Cairo hotel room amid heightened tensions between Egypt and Qatar, which supported the Muslim Brotherhood-backed government of President Mohamed Mursi that was ousted by the military in mid-2013.
In June this year, an Egyptian court found the trio guilty of spreading false news and assisting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and were given harsh sentences. Egyptian national Mohamed was jailed for 10 years, while Greste and Canadian-Egyptian Fahmy each received prison terms of seven years.
Around the world, political leaders spoke out against the ruling. The Canadian Minister of State for Consular Affairs, Lynne Yelich, called for the immediate release of Fahmy, while Britain’s Middle East Minister Tobias Ellwood said: “These sentences will undermine confidence in Egypt’s progress towards strong long-term stability based on implementing the rights granted by the Egyptian constitution.”
He also urged Egyptian authorities to “take urgent action to resolve the position of the two British nationals in this case,” AP reports. Britons Sue Turton and Dominic Kane are among several Al-Jazeera journalists convicted in absentia by Egyptian courts.
Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said in a statement that she would continue to pursue all diplomatic avenue with her Egyptian counterpart to clear Greste’s name.
The US State Department said in a statement it was “deeply disappointed” by the verdict, which “undermines the very freedom of expression necessary for stability and development,” Reuters reported.
International human rights organization Amnesty International described the verdict as “an affront to justice that sound the death knell for freedom of expression in Egypt.”
“This is a farcical verdict which strikes at the heart of freedom of expression in Egypt. The charges against Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed were always baseless and politicized, and they should never have been arrested and tried in the first place,” Philip Luther, Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, under the hashtags #FreeAJStaff and #Journalismisnotacrime, thousands took to social media to voice their opposition to the verdicts.
RT if you're appalled at the decision in Egypt today. #JournalismIsNotACrime #FreeAJStaff pic.twitter.com/z9I0QRFd1L
— Shiona McCallum (@shionamc) August 29, 2015
Thoughts?
Another fine example of justice in the Arab world. No wonder the police and the courts scare me stiff.
We’re you trying to make that as bigoted as possible?
I was reading up on Qatar’s media law recently. I noticed that a lot of the media here self-censors. I wonder what happens when people try to talk about something controversial? I know international journalists were arrested for not having the right permissions to be in some places, but can journalists/bloggers expect any degree of freedom of speech here?
I often wonder what would happen if I wrote about the workers in labour camps/human rights. For now, to be on the safe side, I mostly steer clear.
Katie
I don’t think you’d be legally punished for writing about something like that. The real sensitivity is when you insult the Emir personally or incite an uprising or something across those lines. Have you not heard of the Poet that was sentenced to 15 years in prison because he insulted the Emir and his daughter? His name is “Mohammed Ibn al-Dheeb” (Ù…Øمد بن الذيب ). Look it up.
It’s sad and embarrassing (as a Qatari) that such laws still exist….
As if u dont know the same law is here in qatar
just pick a scene on ur phone and u get arrested
its all the same
What are you talking about? I was referring to Qatar.
I just looked this up. I can’t believe he’s been in jail since 2012. I would have thought he would get a Ramadan pardon.
Katie
I’d be very careful here, a number of people have been picked up in the last few years, some over comments in FB. They don’t stay in the country long after that if they avoid jail sentences.
You are right about one thing, the media practices self censorship. Too scared some of them.
Yeah, given that Al Jazeera get quite a bit of latitude here, I would have thought journalists here could push boundaries a bit further.
Katie
They don’t report in local matters. Point out the failings of Egypt and the west great, don’t look at Qatar….
Katie, how long have you been in the Gulf? Take MIMH’s comments seriously and I strongly urge you to avoid writing anything that could be viewed as critical. I know this from very unpleasant first-hand experience.
6 years and counting!
Seriously? 6 YEARS?
Ah, you mean counting your time in Dubai! I think you will find Doha to be very different from Dubai. That can be a good or bad thing, depending on your own likes & dislikes. 🙂
Well, you asked how long I had been in the Gulf 🙂
2.5 years in Abu Dhabi, 2.5 years in Dubai and soon enough it’ll be a year here in Doha!
Katie
Can’t wait for you to get picked up, sweetie!
Sorry your not my type.
I guess as many Qataris would agree when expats complain about the laws here, their country, their rules.