An Egyptian court sentenced three Al Jazeera TV journalists to three years in prison yesterday for operating without a press licence and broadcasting material harmful to Egypt, a case that has stirred an international outcry.
The verdict in a retrial was issued against Mohamed Fahmy, a naturalised Canadian who has given up his Egyptian citizenship, Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian, and Peter Greste, an Australian who was deported in February.
Rights advocates say their arrest was part of a crackdown on free speech waged since the army overthrew President Mohamed Mursi, a senior Muslim Brotherhood figure, in July 2013 following mass unrest over his rule.
Judge Hassan Farid said the defendants, dubbed the “Marriott Cell” by the local press because they worked out of a hotel belonging to that chain, “are not journalists and not members of the press syndicate” and broadcast with unlicensed equipment.
The three men were originally sentenced to between seven to 10 years in prison on charges including spreading lies to help a terrorist organisation, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood which the military toppled from power two years ago.
The three defendants denied all charges, calling them absurd. Three other Egyptians, all students, also received three-year sentences for the same charges.
Speaking on Al Jazeera in reaction to yesterday’s verdict, Greste said he was shocked at the scale of the sentence. “Words really don’t do justice,” he said. “To be given three-year sentences is outrageous. It is just devastating for me.”
Fahmy and Mohamed, who had been released on bail in February after over a year in jail, were taken back into custody after the verdict, according to Fahmy’s wife Marwa Omara. She was in tears after the sentences were read out.
“We will appeal this verdict and hope it will be reversed. We are now going to be holding a series of meetings with government officials where we will be asking for Fahmy’s immediate deportation to Canada,” said Fahmy’s lawyer Amal Clooney.
