Egypt: Court Orders Retrial for Journalists

Kenya Journalists for Peter Greste
Kenyan journalists support colleagues detained in Egypt.
1 January 2015
allAfrica.com

Egypt's highest court has ordered a retrial of three Al Jazeera journalists serving jail terms of up to 10 years for doing their work.

The news channel reported a defence lawyer as saying Thursday that the country's Court of Cassation had "accepted their appeal".

Lawyers expected that the retrial would be held within a month but the journalists, Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, were denied bail.

The men's families were reported to be disappointed at Egypt's failure to release them immediately. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said last November that had he been in power when they were arrested, he woul have expelled them rather than put them on trial. "This issue is currently under discussion so that we may find a solution," he added.

The journalists were sentenced last June to jail terms ranging from seven to 10 years on charges including broadcasting false news and involvement with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Amnesty International has reported that the prosecution had "failed to produce a single shred of solid evidence linking the journalists to a terrorism organization or proving they had 'falsified' news footage".

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