Outrage as Al-Jazeera retrial ends with three-year jail terms

August 29, 2015

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the three-year jail sentences that a Cairo court, after many postponements, finally passed today on Al-Jazeera journalists Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, Baher Mohamed and Peter Geste, who were convicted of disseminating false information and working without a licence.

“We firmly condemn the disgraceful ‘political’ verdict issued at the end of the retrial of these Al-Jazeera journalists,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

“For those who didn’t already know, this grossly unfair trial shows the blatant disregard for media freedom in Egypt, where the limits are overstepped every day. President Sisi’s regime cannot continue to justify its authoritarian excesses in the name of combatting terrorism.”

The long-awaited final hearing was held this morning amid great expectation in Cairo’s Tora prison. The arrival in the courtroom of Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, their lawyers, the ambassadors of Canada, Netherlands and United Kingdom, and finally the judge triggered a flurry of messaging on social networks.

Peter Greste was tried in absentia after being deported to Australia in February.

To cap this judicial sham, Mohamed was given an additional six-month sentence for supposedly being in possession of a bullet at the time of his arrest.


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