An Egyptian court has handed down a three-year prison sentence at the retrial of three Al Jazeera journalists accused of supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The case has aroused international condemnation. An Egyptian court on Saturday 29th August gave three Al Jazeera journalists a three-year prison sentence on charges of broadcasting false news and working without permits, in a retrial called after an initial verdict was overturned by an appeals court. Al Jazeera immediately condemned Saturday’s court decision, calling it a “deliberate attack on press freedom.” The broadcaster’s English acting director-general, Mostefa Souag, said the verdict “defies logic and common sense,” adding that the “whole case has been heavily politicized and has not been conducted in a free and fair manner.” Canadian national Mohammed Fahmy, Australian journalist Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohammed had initially been accused of supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood while covering events following the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi for the Qatarbased broadcaster. The journalists were sentenced to seven years in prison in June 2014, while Mohammed was given an additional three years after police searching his home found a bullet that he had picked up while reporting on clashes between Brotherhood supporters and security forces. An appeals court overturned the verdicts, after finding there to be a scarcity of evidence against the journalists. Greste was deported in February after serving 400 days, and was being retried in absentia, while both Fahmy and Mohamed have been out on bail since the retrial began in February. Fahmy, who had both Egyptian and Canadian citizenship, dropped the Egyptian one in the hope of being deported like Greste. Previous hearings for a verdict in the retrial have been delayed several times.
