Egypt court sentences three Al Jazeera journalists to three years in prison

A Cairo court sentenced three journalists, who were arrested in 2013 for allegedly aiding the banned Muslim Brotherhood, to three years in prison on Aug. 29. A lawyer for one of the journalists said the verdict sends a "dangerous message in Egypt." (Reuters)

By Erin Cunningham and Heba Habib-August 29

CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced three Al Jazeera journalists to three years in prison on charges of broadcasting without a license and “spreading false news.”

The verdict came after an appeals court granted the reporters a retrial earlier this year. The journalists — Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Australian Peter Greste — were first convicted of aiding a terrorist organization in April 2014. The court sentenced Greste in absentia after authorities deported him to Australia in February.

In rendering his verdict, Judge Hassan Farid said the journalists had not officially registered as members of the press, used unlicensed equipment and broadcast false material that was “harmful to Egypt.” A court-appointed technical committee said in the trial that they found no evidence the reporters had manipulated footage.

“If this was an independent court, there would have been a full acquittal,” Amal Clooney, human rights attorney and defense lawyer for Fahmy, said outside the courtroom Saturday. “This sets a dangerous precedent for journalists being imprisoned in Egypt.”

Rights groups have slammed Egypt’s judiciary for what they say are “sham trials” and harsh sentences against political dissidents. Amnesty International called Saturday’s verdict an “affront to justice.”

A June photo of Canadian Al-Jazeera English journalist Mohammed Fahmy, left, and his Egyptian colleague Baher Mohammed in a courtroom in Tora prison in Cairo. (Amr Nabil/AP)

[Cairo judge sentences Egyptian American to life in prison]

Egypt clamped down on freedom of the press after a military coup ousted Muslim Brotherhood leader and Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Officials then accused the Al Jazeera satellite network, which is owned by Qatar, a Brotherhood ally, of backing the Islamists against the state. While Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language channel openly supported the Brotherhood, the convicted journalists worked for the English-language network, a separate channel widely viewed as more objective.

Police detained the three journalists in December 2013, later broadcasting Fahmy and Greste’s arrests to dramatic music on Egyptian television. All three journalists have already spent more than a year in prison.

On Saturday, Fahmy’s wife, Marwa Omara, cried out as the judge read the guilty verdict in court. “This is wrong!” she said, breaking down into tears.

Fahmy and Greste were both sentenced to three years in a maximum-security prison, while Mohamed was sentenced to an additional six months of hard labor because police found a bullet in his home at the time of his arrest.

Fahmy and Mohamed, who has three young children, were taken into custody following the verdict on Saturday.

In an interview with The Post earlier this year, Mohamed said he was “enjoying limited freedom” while out on bail. “But one thing I learned in prison, is to lower your expectations.”

Al Jazeera responded to the judge’s ruling Saturday by calling it a “dark day for Egypt’s judiciary.”

“There is no evidence proving that our colleagues in any way fabricated news or aided and abetted terrorist organizations,” Al Jazeera Media Network’s acting director, Mostefa Souag said in a statement Saturday. “Baher, Peter and Mohamed have been sentenced despite the fact that not a shred of evidence was found to support the extraordinary and false charges against them.”

Clooney said she would be meeting with Egyptian officials to lobby for the deportation of Fahmy, who is a Canadian citizen. Egyptian law allows foreign nationals convicted of crimes in Egypt to be deported to their home countries. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi issued an order to deport Greste.

“Shocked. Outraged. Angry. Upset,” Greste tweeted following the verdict Saturday. “None of them convey how I feel right now.”

Erin Cunningham is an Egypt-based correspondent for The Post. She previously covered conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan for the Christian Science Monitor, GlobalPost and The National.