Australian Journalist Peter Greste Jailed For 7 Years In Egypt

[bust]

Peter Greste trial: Al Jazeera journalist found guilty, sentenced to seven years in jail

 

Updated 28 minutes ago

 

Photo: Peter Greste (L) and Mohamed Fahmy © were sentenced to seven years in jail by a judge, while Baher Mohamed was sentenced to 10 years. (AFP: Khaled Desouki)

Map: Egypt

Australian journalist Peter Greste and two of his Al Jazeera colleagues have been found guilty by an Egypt court of spreading false news and supporting the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.

Greste and Mohamed Fahmy were sentenced to seven years in jail by a judge and Baher Mohamed was sentenced to 10 years. Three other journalists who were tried in absentia were handed 10-year sentences.

SoundCloud: Hayden Cooper describes scenes in court after Peter Greste's sentence

 

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Australian Government was "shocked" by the verdict and "appalled by the severity of it".

Greste's parents Juris and Lois reacted with dismay: "My god, my god ... that's crazy, that's absolutely crazy."

Middle East correspondent Hayden Cooper was in court for the verdict and said there was a look of despair on his brother Andrew Greste's face. Cooper described the scenes as "chaotic".

Peter Greste banged the cage holding him when he heard the sentence.

"We couldn't quite hear what the judge was saying but eventually it became clear the sentence was handed down," Cooper said.

"The reaction was awful, basically. Everyone started shouting and then chanting ... the family are just stunned by the verdict.

"It's really quite an extraordinary scene as the family try to come to grips with what has just happened."

Greste's brothers Andrew and Mike were in court for the verdict. Andrew said there were chaotic scenes both there and outside the jail as Peter and the other defendants were rushed out of the courtroom.

He said he was not able to speak to his brother, nor did the judge provide an explanation for the verdict.

 

Video: Peter Greste's parents react to guilty verdict

 

"I do understand that it's part of the process of delivering a verdict, I think that there is a written explanation of the court's decision, but that wasn't at all spoken in court and I haven't seen anything at all yet which outlines the reasoning," he told the ABC's 7.30 program.

"It's pretty difficult to prepare yourself for that [verdict]. I don't know how you do prepare yourself. [it's] obviously something that we're going have to process and digest over the next day or two, but regardless of whether you prepare yourself, the emotions still are just devastated. I'm gutted. It's just unbelievable really.

"Obviously Mike [Peter's other brother] and I are here together ... as soon as I can sort of make contact with Australia, I will be giving mum and dad a call."

He said his family would now be exploring all of their options.

"Obviously we're not going to give up the fight to get Peter released because we believe he's completely innocent. He's done nothing wrong," he said.

"But it's just going to be a matter of looking at all the options and discussing it with people that have helped us along the way through this process and develop a strategy from here."

Video: Andrew Greste 'gutted' by brother's jailing (7.30)

 

Al Jazeera English managing director Al Anstey said the verdict "defies logic, sense, and any semblance of justice".

"Peter, Mohamed, and Baher and six of our other colleagues were sentenced despite the fact that not a shred of evidence was found to support the extraordinary and false charges against them," he said in a statement.

"At no point during the long drawn out trial did the absurd allegations stand up to scrutiny. There were many moments during the hearings where in any other court of law, the trial would be thrown out.

"There were numerous irregularities in addition to the lack of evidence to stand up the ill-conceived allegations."

Mr Anstey said the only sensible outcome was for "the verdict to be overturned, and justice to be recognised by Egypt".

Ms Bishop told reporters the Federal Government was shocked by the verdict.

"We are deeply dismayed by the fact that a sentence has been imposed and we are appalled by the severity of it," she said.

Video: Julie Bishop discusses the verdict (ABC News)

 

"It is hard to credit that the court in this case could have reached this conclusion.

"This kind of verdict does nothing to support Egypt's claim to be on a transition to democracy, and the Australian Government urges the new government of Egypt to reflect on what message is being sent to the world about the situation in Egypt."

Ms Bishop said the Government would try to find out whether an intervention was possible.

"The Egyptian ambassador will be speaking to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade tomorrow," she said.

"I have spoken at length with Peter Greste's parents. They are considering their legal options, including appeal options.

"We do not know how long an appeal process would take. But in the meantime, we will provide whatever consular assistance we can to Mr Greste and of course to his family."

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said he and Labor was "shocked at the awful news".

"Labor will work with the Government to do whatever we can to remedy this problem at the earliest possible date," he said.

"Our thoughts about this appalling news are with Peter Greste's family and Peter Greste. He should know that the whole of Australia is right behind him and his family."

Prosecutors had been demanding 15-year penalty

 

Greste, along with his colleagues Fahmy and Mohamed, had been in detention since their arrest in late December.

Prosecutors were demanding the maximum penalty of between 15 and 20 years in jail for Greste and his co-accused.

 

 

Profile: life and career of Peter Greste

Take a look back at the Australian journalist's career.

 

Greste and his colleagues are among a group of 20 journalists charged by the Egyptian government in a case that has triggered international outrage about press freedom in Egypt.

Of that group, 16 are Egyptians accused with joining the Brotherhood, which was designated a terrorist organisation in the wake of the army ousting elected president Mohamed Morsi last July.

Prosecutors said the relationship between Al Jazeera and the Muslim Brotherhood was like an alliance with the devil, and that Greste's reportage was intended to harm the Egyptian state.

However, Greste told the judge that evidence against him had been falsified and asked for an acquittal.

"Prosecutors did not present a single piece of evidence - there wasn't a single piece of evidence in court," he said earlier this month.

"It was falsified, there weren't any facts that we got wrong. There was no story that we manipulated."

The conviction comes after both Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Ms Bishop appealed to the Egyptian government on Greste's behalf.

Greste's family, who have worked tirelessly to keep the journalist's plight in the spotlight, have previously conceded there was little the Government could do.

 

Four foreigners, including Greste, were charged with "spreading false news" and collaborating with and assisting the Egyptian defendants in their crimes by providing media material, as well as editing and publishing it.

Nine of the 20 defendants are in detention, with the others being tried in absentia, including three foreign reporters who are abroad.

Greste's charges stem from what was supposed to be a "routine" three-week stint last December covering Egypt's political turmoil.

"The fact that we were arrested for what seems to be a set of relatively uncontroversial stories tells us a lot about what counts as 'normal' and what is dangerous in post-revolutionary Egypt," Greste wrote in January.

Egyptian authorities have enacted a fierce crackdown against Islamists since listing the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.

Brotherhood leader and 182 leaders were last week sentenced to death in a mass trial.

 

http://www.abc.net.a...-guilty/5543292

[robaus]

I agree ... an absolutely scandalous verdict and a farcical trial

 

...another country where in the eyes of the military the people made the wrong democratic choice in free elections.. So they staged a coup and held phony new ones instead.

 

Obama last year threatened to cut the $1,5bn in aid to Egypt. I certainly hope he has done so.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/three-aljazeera-journalists-jailed-chorus-of-international-condemnation-for-egypt-trial--this-isnt-a-system-everything-is-corrupt-9558293.html

 

"The prosecution introduced a variety of apparently irrelevant video material [a Gotye film clip] as evidence, including reports produced by Greste in Kenya, where he was based before his arrest. Miscellaneous footage of farm animals was also played, and an inaudible recording of students.

 

In a crucial development on 1 June, technical experts commissioned by the court admitted that they could not say that the footage found in the team’s studio betrayed evidence of manipulation or misleading editing. They also said they did not speak English, the language of much of the footage.

 

Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International said the trial was a complete sham. “Consigning these men to years in prison after such a farcical spectacle is a travesty of justice,†he said.

 

“We’re very disappointed at this judgment,†said British ambassador James Watt, who attended the hearing. “From the start of this we’ve had serious concerns. Freedom of expression and freedom of the press is of fundamental importance to any democracy.â€

 

The journalists have been in captivity since 29 December, when they were arrested during raids on their studio in central Cairo and Baher Mohammed’s home. Mr Fahmy has lost full use of his shoulder due to a lack of medical treatment in prison. The journalists are expected to appeal.

 

Andrew Greste said he looked into his brother’s eyes as he was lead away. “He’s not going to give up,†he said.

 

After the defendants were led from the dock, it was quickly filled again, with dozens of white-clad prisoners, in another mass trial of alleged opponents of the regime."

[robaus]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-egypt-journalist-al-jazeera-0624-20140624,0,3702959.story

The evidence against them included a strange array of irrelevant items, from videos of horses to a song by multi-instrumentalist and singer Gotye. The presiding judge told them in May that if they wanted copies of the stories that they allegedly fabricated, they would have to pay $170,000 – and then upbraided their lawyers for failing to do so.

Prosecutors couldn't be bothered to offer proof that the reports were faked or that those charged had anything to do with the Muslim Brotherhood. One of the defendants has both Egyptian and Canadian citizenship and drinks alcohol, hardly the profile of a zealous Islamist. Another is an Australian who had been in the country only a few days when he was arrested.

But it didn't matter. All three received sentences of seven years in prison for helping terrorists and undermining national security. One got an additional three years for possession of a weapon — a spent bullet casing he found at a protest and kept as a memento. Courtroom spectators were shocked when the guilty verdict was announced.

[baa99]

It is almost like a Guantanamo trial.

[robaus]

Sadly I was wrong. The US is still supporting the new Egyptian dictatorship.

 

The US, UK, Aus et al invade Iraq to bring freedom and democracy while supposedly looking for non existent WMD but instead caused a civil war and millions dead.

 

Now just a few kilometres away the US is propping up a regime that kills, tortures and imprisons thousands of its own citizens for practising democracy.

 

What a strange world we live in...

 

There is of course a nearby country that is the common denominator in all of this, but I won't open that particular can of worms.

 

http://online.wsj.co...isit-1403426551

 

 

 

John Kerry Voices Strong Support for Egyptian President Sisi

 

Secretary of State Becomes Highest-Ranking U.S. Official to Meet Sisi

 

 

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  Egyptian President Sisi (right) meets John Kerry in Cairo on Sunday. The Egyptian Presidency/Reuters
  CAIRO—Secretary of StateJohn Kerry voiced strong U.S. support for Egypt's new president and signaled that Washington will continue the flow of military aid in an American welcome of the post-coup government.
  Mr. Kerry is the most senior Obama administration official to meet Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, the former commander of the Egyptian armed forces, since his inaugurationas president earlier this month. The American diplomat stressed that Washington was eager to kick-start its strategic relationship with Cairo anew.
  Mr. Kerry said that the U.S. had recently released $575 million in assistance for Egypt's military and that he was confident 10 Apache helicopters would be delivered to Egypt soon.