Retrial court urged to acquit when issuing verdict tomorrow

They are Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, who were freed on bail, and Peter Greste, an Australian citizen who was deported back to his country of origin under a presidential decree in February. All three were arrested in December 2013. “These Al-Jazeera journalists must be acquitted at this second trial,” said Alexandra El Khazen, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Middle East and Maghreb desk. “They should never have been tried in the first place because they were unjustly arrested and charged just for doing their job. The entire world has its eyes turned on Egypt because this is a decisive trial for media freedom. It is unfair, politically-motivated trials, not journalists, that tarnish the country’s reputation.” At the first trial, Fahmy and Greste were sentenced to seven years in prison, while Mohamed got ten years. On the grounds of a lack of evidence, the Court of Cassation requested a retrial in January. The Egyptian authorities have had the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera in their sights ever since the start of the popular uprising in 2011. In Egypt, Al-Jazeera is regarded as the mouthpiece of the Qatari government and biased in favour of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was declared a “terrorist organization” in December 2013. The pro-government media refer to the Al-Jazeera journalists as the “Marriott cell” after the name of the hotel where they were arrested in December 2013. The international outcry about their arrest and trial has been a constant source of embarrassment for the government, which has repeatedly cited national security and the need to combat terrorism as grounds for silencing dissident journalists. A new anti-terrorism bill that is awaiting President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s approval has received strong criticism from the journalists’ union and international organizations. Under the initial version of article 33 of the bill, journalists could have been sentenced to two years in prison if their coverage of terrorist attacks strayed from the official account. In an amended version, the jail term has been replaced by a heavy fine of 200,000 to 500,000 Egyptian pounds (23,000 to 58,000 euros). With at least 15 journalists currently detained in connection with their work, Egypt is the world’s fourth biggest prison for media personnel (after China, Eritrea and Iran). It is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. RSF has launched an awareness campaign on the social networks about their trial and the situation of journalists in Egypt: