24. 06. 2014

AL JAZEERA JOURNALISTS SENTENCED TO LONG-TERM IMPRISONMENT IN EGYPT

24. 06. 2014 (Politika; by S.R.) - Three journalists of the Qatari television Al Jazeera, accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, were sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison.

A court in Cairo found guilty the Australian correspondent Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian national Mohammed Fahmy, the Al Jazeera Cairo bureau chief, and Baher Mohammed, an Egyptian producer, of spreading false information and support to the outlawed Islamist group, according to the AP, and reported by Tanjug news agency.

The accused denied all charges. Fahmy and Greste were sentenced to seven years in prison, while Mohammed will spend ten years in prison after being convicted on another charge to three years.

Additional three foreign journalists, including two British and one Dutch national, were sentenced in absence to ten years imprisonment from a total of 20 media workers that Egyptian authorities are prosecuting, despite international concerns about the suppression of freedom in this country.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had previously appealed directly to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to release Greste, a former BBC correspondent. Three Al Jazeera journalists have spent six months in detention in Egypt.

Greste, Fahmy and Mohammed were arrested in December when police broke into their hotel room in Cairo, as part of extensive operations against supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi who was close to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Three Al Jazeera journalists were charged with supporting the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, and spreading by means of the TV network false news that Egypt is on the brink of civil war, which, as the court judged, was aimed at undermining national security.

The accused, however, claim that they were only doing their job and reporting on the wave of protests organized by the Muslim Brotherhood in opposition to the military-supported government that was founded after Mursi was ousted on July 3.

Qatari television Al Jazeera, Australia, and the Netherlands have criticized the sentences handed down yesterday, reports BETA-AFP.