Last year in Davos I got to meet Al Anstey, head of Al-Jazeera television’s English service. It was a few weeks after the arrest of three of his colleagues and Anstey was lobbying hard for their release. During one of the Press Conferences, Anstey’s tough questioning of, and obfuscating responses by the Egyptian politican leadership was memorable. But despite his efforts and, indeed, those of political heavyweights around the world, the three Al-Jazeera journalists are still in jail – simply for doing their job. Today, more than a year later, there is some good news. – AH
by Haitham El-Tabei
Egypt’s top court Thursday ordered a retrial of three Al-Jazeera reporters whose imprisonment on charges of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood triggered global outrage, but kept them in custody pending a new hearing.
Australian Peter Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed of the broadcaster’s English service were detained in December 2013 for spreading false information.
Greste and Fahmy each got seven years, and Mohamed was jailed for 10.
“The Court of Cassation has accepted their appeal and ordered a retrial,” Greste’s defence lawyer Amr Al-Deeb said Thursday.
The defendants were not at the hearing, which lasted just 30 minutes.
Hopes for the journalists’ release have grown following a thaw in diplomatic relations between Cairo and Qatar, where their employer is based. Both the defence and the prosecution had requested a retrial.
“I hope the reconciliation efforts between Egypt and Qatar continue for the sake of my brother and his colleagues … who are paying the price of a political crisis,” Fahmy’s brother Adel told reporters.
Mohamed’s wife Jihan welcomed the retrial as a “small but positive step towards my husband being freed”.
“This past year has been the worst year of me and my children’s lives,” she added.
Al-Jazeera called for the swift release of its employees.
“The Egyptian authorities have a simple choice — free these men quickly or continue to string this out, all the while continuing this injustice and harming the image of their own country in the eyes of the world,” the channel said.
“They should choose the former.”
‘Settling political scores’
The reporters, who authorities say lacked proper accreditation, were sentenced in June for aiding the Muslim Brotherhood after the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
The Brotherhood, which saw electoral success after the overthrow of longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011, has since been declared a “terrorist organisation” in Egypt.
Analysts said the retrial appeared to be a step towards the release of the journalists.
“The question is now about time … how quickly will the retrial be conducted,” H.A. Hellyer of the Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington told AFP.
“It might not be a full acquittal. There are other options, with sentences ranging from time served to suspended sentences. But it is quite likely it will end in their release.”
A date for the retrial has not yet been announced.
But defence lawyer Shabaan Saeed said it was expected to begin soon as “the government wants to end the case as fast as possible”.
The reporters were arrested when Egypt and Qatar were at loggerheads after Morsi was removed by then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is now president, following mass protests against his one-year rule.
“Their arrest was a settling of political scores between Egypt and Qatar,” Fahmy’s lawyer Negad al-Borai said.
Improving relations
Ties worsened when Qatar, a key backer of the Muslim Brotherhood, repeatedly denounced Morsi’s overthrow, prompting Cairo to accuse Al-Jazeera of biased coverage.
At least 1,400 people have died in the crackdown on Morsi’s Islamist supporters, most of them in August 2013 when police broke up two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo.
The diplomatic row now appears to be ending following mediation by Gulf heavyweight Saudi Arabia, a key Sisi backer.
On December 20, Cairo told a Qatari envoy it was ready for a “new era” in relations with Doha, as the emirate offered its “full support” to Sisi.
Two days later, Al-Jazeera announced the surprise closure of its Egyptian channel, which had consistently criticised Cairo since Morsi’s ouster.
Sisi himself has said he would have preferred the journalists to have been deported rather than tried.
In November, he issued a decree allowing him to deport foreigners sentenced to prison or on trialOn Thursday, the court also ordered a retrial for co-defendants, including four Egyptians who were jailed for seven years on charges of belonging to a terrorist organisation and for “damaging the image of Egypt”.
Eleven other defendants, tried in absentia, including one Dutch and two British journalists, had been sentenced to 10 years.
© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse
Statement from Al-Jazeera
Al Jazeera has said that the retrial granted today to its jailed journalists should be expedited quickly by the Egyptian authorities. Lawyers say that the appeal process from this point can take another 12-18 months.
After the conviction was overruled by the court of cassation today, Al Jazeera spokesperson Osama Saeed said, “Baher, Peter and Mohammed have been unjustly in jail for over a year now. The Egyptian authorities have a simple choice – free these men quickly, or continue to string this out, all the while continuing this injustice and harming the image of their own country in the eyes of the world. They should choose the former.”
Calls for the release of Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed have been made by the White House, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the European Union, the Australian Government and over 150 rights groups, including Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Press Institute.
Over 200,000 people have signed petitions globally. Hundreds of thousands of people have also kept the hashtag #FreeAJStaff viral throughout the last year.
President Sisi has said he is considering using his powers under the Egyptian constitution to release the journalists. This would be separate to the court process. When asked about this possibility in November, he replied, “Let us say that this matter is being discussed to solve the issue.” Such a move would be applicable to all of the detained journalists.
