CAIRO, June 23 – An Egyptian court Monday sentenced three Al-Jazeera journalists including Australian Peter Greste to jail terms ranging from seven to 10 years after accusing them of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.
Greste and Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy each got seven years, while producer Baher Mohamed received two sentences — one for seven years and another for three years.
The three were among 20 defendants in a trial that has triggered international outrage amid fears of growing media restrictions in Egypt.
Eleven defendants who were tried in absentia, including three foreign journalists, were given 10-year sentences.
Of the six defendants in custody along with the three journalists, four were sentenced to seven years and two were acquitted.
Since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, the authorities have been incensed by the Qatari network’s coverage of their deadly crackdown on his supporters.
They consider Al-Jazeera to be the voice of Qatar, and accuse Doha of backing Morsi’s Brotherhood, while the emirate openly denounces the repression of the Islamist movement’s supporters which has killed more than 1,400 people.
Greste, Fahmy and Mohamed have been in custody for nearly six months, along with six others.
Al-Jazeera says only nine of the 20 defendants are on its staff, including two foreign reporters who are abroad.
Dutch woman journalist Rena Netjes, not with the satellite channel, was among the defendants sentenced in absentia to 10 years.
Sixteen defendants are Egyptians who were accused of belonging to the Brotherhood, which the authorities designated a “terrorist organisation” in December.
The four foreigners were also alleged to have collaborated with and assisted their Egyptian co-defendants by providing media material, as well as editing and broadcasting it.
The authorities also say the accused journalists were operating without valid accreditation.
“On June 23, the entire world will be watching Egypt to see whether they uphold the values of press freedom,” Al-Jazeera had said ahead of Monday’s hearing.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry also called for freedom of the press to be upheld in Egypt as he made a surprise visit to Cairo.
‘Reporting, not supporting’
Kerry said he discussed with Egyptian officials “the essential role of a vibrant civil society, free press, rule of law and due process in a democracy“.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Monday he had spoken to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over the weekend.
“I assured him, as a former journalist myself, that Peter Greste would have been reporting the Muslim Brotherhood, not supporting the Muslim Brotherhood,” Abbott told the Seven Network.
Sisi, who was sworn in as president on June 8, has said he intends to return Egypt to stability rather than encourage democratic reforms.
Prosecutors had demanded the maximum penalty for all defendants, which meant the 16 Egyptians could have been jailed for 25 years and the foreigners for 15 years.
Since the trial began on February 20, rights groups have expressed concerns over media restrictions in Egypt.
“What the Egyptian authorities are doing is vindictive persecution of journalists for merely doing their jobs,” said Amnesty International.
During hearings the defendants denounced the trial as “unfair and political”, charging that evidence had been “fabricated“.
Prosecutors showed video from a tourism report not even produced by Al-Jazeera, as well as images and audio recordings in which the defendants were alleged to have falsely portrayed a “civil war”.
Greste and Fahmy were arrested in a hotel room in Cairo on December 29 after the channel’s office was raided by police.
Greste formerly worked with the BBC and won the 2011 Peabody Award for a documentary on Somalia.
Fahmy, the Cairo bureau chief of Al-Jazeera English who previously worked with CNN, has no known Brotherhood ties.
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