Egypt "sets appeal" for journalists

21 October 2014 Last updated at 16:46 The three jailed al-Jazeera journalists: Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed and Peter Greste A court in Egypt has set the appeals hearing of three jailed al-Jazeera journalists for 1 January, says the family of one of them.

Mohamed Fahmy’s family said Cairo’s Court of Cassation will hear the case.

The three journalists of the Qatar-based broadcaster were jailed for seven years on 23 June. They were accused of spreading false news and supporting the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood.

The court will either uphold the verdict or call for a retrial.

It is thought the Court of Cassation will take one or two sessions to deliver its ruling.

A lawyer familiar with the case told the BBC that if the court rejects the sentences, the case will return to the criminal court for a retrial.

Should it uphold the verdict, the only other alternative is for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to offer a pardon.

Silent protests Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed at their sentencing on 23 June BBC journalists joined colleagues around the world in silently protesting against the sentencing

Egyptian-Canadian bureau chief Mr Fahmy, Australian correspondent Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed were arrested on 29 December last year.

At the sentencing in June, Mr Fahmy received a further three years on charges of possessing “unlicensed ammunition”.

Eleven other defendants, including three foreign journalists, tried in absentia at the same time received 10-year sentences.

The sentencing of the three sparked an international outcry and raised concerns over growing media restrictions in Egypt.

Journalists around the world held silent protests against their imprisonment

Al-Jazeera was banned from operating inside Egypt after the authorities accused it of broadcasting reports sympathetic to former President Mohammed Morsi and the now banned Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Jazeera has consistently denied the allegations.

However Qatar has supported the Brotherhood and is unpopular with Egypt’s government.

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Egypt "sets appeal" for journalists

Egypt arrests Al-Jazeera journalists

CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian secret police have arrested an award-winning Australian journalist and an Egyptian reporter for the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera channel suspected of illegally broadcasting news harming “domestic security,” the interior ministry said.

The arrests come amid a widening crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, which the military-installed government declared a “terrorist organisation” last week.Al-Jazeera confirmed the arrests, and said police also detained a producer and a cameraman.Officers of the National Security service raided the broadcaster’s makeshift bureau at a Cairo hotel on Sunday, arresting two of the journalists and confiscating their equipment, said a ministry statement.It did not identify the journalists, only saying one was a “Muslim Brotherhood member” and the other an Australian.Al-Jazeera English identified them as Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Adel Fahmy, a dual Egyptian-Canadian citizen, and Australian reporter Peter Greste.It said producer Baher Mohamed and cameraman Mohamed Fawzi were also arrested on Sunday evening.The raid came after authorities listed the Brotherhood as a terror outfit, making membership in the Islamist group or even possession of its literature a crime.The journalists “broadcast live news harming domestic security,” the ministry said, adding they were also found in possession of Brotherhood “publications”.Greste, a former BBC journalist, won the prestigious Peabody award in 2011 for a documentary on Somalia. Fahmy, who formerly worked with CNN, is a well-known journalist in Cairo.“We condemn the arbitrary arrest of Al-Jazeera English journalists working in Cairo and demand their immediate and unconditional release,” the network said.“Al-Jazeera Media Network has been subject to harassment by Egyptian security forces which has arrested our colleagues, confiscated our equipment and raided our offices despite that we are not officially banned from working there.”Egypt’s military-installed government cracked down on Al-Jazeera’s affiliates following the overthrow of Morsi in July, accusing the broadcaster of pro-Brotherhood coverage.Gas-rich Qatar had been a strong supporter of Morsi, and stood out among other Gulf nations in condemning Egypt’s deadly crackdown on pro-Morsi demonstrations.Several Al-Jazeera reporters remain in detention, including Abdullah Elshamy, a journalist for the Arabic language station arrested on August 14 when police dispersed an Islamist protest camp in Cairo, killing hundreds in clashes.The Al-Jazeera office in Cairo. (PHOTO: AFP)

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Egypt arrests Al-Jazeera journalists

More bloodshed in Egypt

News

Sunday, September 08, 2013

CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) — At least 10 people were killed as Egypt’s army launched an air and ground assault on Sinai militants yesterday while foiling a railway bombing near the canal city of Suez, officials said.A prosecutor levelled new accusations meanwhile against Mohamed Morsi, already facing trial on other charges, alleging the Islamist leader insulted the judiciary when he was president, state media said.Egypt has seen an uptick in bombings and shootings, mostly aimed at the security forces, since August 14 when hundreds were killed in clashes after police broke up two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo.The military has been facing an insurgency in north Sinai, a haven for Al-Qaeda-inspired militants who have launched almost daily attacks against security forces in recent weeks.Yesterday, the army carried out air strikes on suspected militant hideouts while armoured vehicles were deployed in the area and along the Rafah border with the Gaza Strip, officers told AFP.Air attacks launched by Apache helicopters and ground operations killed at least “10 Islamist fighters”, while 20 others were wounded and 15 arrested, security officials said.“The army is pursuing its operations against terrorist hideouts to arrest” those suspected of involvement in attacks on military target, one official said.Egyptian authorities meanwhile closed the Rafah border crossing yesterday for “security reasons”, said Maher Abu Sabha, the crossing’s director in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.Elsewhere, police called in military bomb disposal experts after residents from Abu Aref village said they spotted a bomb on the railroad that links Suez with another canal city, Ismailiya.Two mortar rounds and a rocket-propelled grenade were attached to a fuse and appeared to have been intended for a 6:00 am (0400 GMT) train, officials said.Hours later, assailants hurled a grenade at a Cairo police station, security officials said.The attack — the third in weeks on the teeming Boulaq al-Daqrour station — did not cause any casualties.CAIRO, Egypt — Muslim Brotherhood supporters chant slogans as they march in Cairo on Friday. Thousands of protesters flowed out of mosques in Muslim Brotherhood-led rallies against the military-backed Government a day after a car bomb in the Egyptian capital marked a substantial escalation in Egypt’s violent turmoil. (PHOTO: AP)

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More bloodshed in Egypt

In pictures: Deadly Egypt clashes

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In pictures: Deadly Egypt clashes