Peter Greste case: international anger for Egypt's sentencing of al-Jazeera journalists
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Al Jazeera journalist and Australian citizen Peter Greste stands inside the defendants' cage in a courtroom during the trial. Photo: AP
harsh jail sentences handed down to three al-Jazeera journalists –
including Australian Peter Greste – with human rights groups describing
the verdict as a black day in the country’s unrelenting assault on the
freedom of expression.
Egypt’s relentless pursuit of Greste, Canadian-Egyptian
bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed was
vindictive and politically motivated, Amnesty International said.
The Australian ambassador to Egypt, Dr Ralph King,
right, sits next to Andrew Greste, brother of defendant Peter Greste
during the sentencing hearing. Photo: AP
or to support a conviction, Amnesty said, instead, the three were
“pawns” in the bitter geopolitical dispute between Egypt and Qatar, the
oil-rich Gulf country that finances al-Jazeera.
Qatar has long been perceived as a supporter of the Muslim
Brotherhood, the multi-national religious and political group labelled a
terrorist organisation in Egypt late last year as part of a vicious
government security crackdown on the group and its supporters.
The Qatari government pumped billions of dollars in aid to
support Egypt’s sinking economy during the 11-month term of the Muslim
Brotherhood backed president, Mohamed Mursi.
The fiance of journalist Mohamed Fahmy is consoled by
a friend following the verdicts in the sentencing hearing for
Al-Jazeera journalists. Photo: AP
acting on what it described as a groundswell of public support, the
retribution against the Brotherhood and its backers was swift and
brutal.
“The truth is that Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher
Mohamed are prisoners of conscience who must be released immediately and
unconditionally,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s Middle East and
North Africa Program Deputy Director.
As Peter Greste’s stunned family regrouped to plan the next
phase of their campaign to free him from one of Egypt’s most notorious
prisons where he has spent the last six months in a 3mx4m cell with his
colleagues, the censures poured in from world leaders.
Peter Greste (left) and his colleagues Mohamed Fadel
Fahmy and Baher Mohamed listen to the verdict from inside the
defendants' cage. Photo: AFP
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to announced the United States had released $US575m
in military aid that had been frozen since the ousting of President
Mohammed Morsi last July, US Secretary of State John Kerry was scathing
in his criticism of the verdict.
“Today's conviction and chilling, draconian sentences by the
Cairo Criminal Court of three al-Jazeera journalists and fifteen others
in a trial that lacked many fundamental norms of due process, is a
deeply disturbing set-back to Egypt's transition.
“Injustices like these simply cannot stand if Egypt is to
move forward in the way that President al-Sisi and Foreign Minister
[Sameh] Shoukry told me just yesterday that they aspire to see their
country advance.”
Mr Kerry urged the Egyptian government to review all
political sentences and verdicts pronounced during the last few years
and consider all available remedies, including pardons.
But despite his strong words there was no indication that the
newly-unfrozen military aid would have any human rights conditions
attached.
The UK Foreign Secretary William Hague confirmed Egypt's
Ambassador would be summoned to the Foreign Office over the sentencing,
which he described as "unacceptable".
The Dutch took similar action, with Foreign Affairs Minister
Frans Timmermans confirming the Netherlands had summoned the Egyptian
Ambassador.
Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the government
was "bitterly disappointed with the outcome" - it is understood the
Egyptian Ambassador to Australia would be meeting with the Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade on Tuesday.
"The Australian government is shocked at the verdict in the
Peter Greste case. We are deeply dismayed by the fact that a sentence
has been imposed and we are appalled by the severity of it."
Egypt's foreign ministry appeared to reject the wave of
international criticism, putting out a statement on Monday evening
claiming the country's judiciary "enjoys full independence, and the new
constitution provides safeguards to ensure media freedom and to
guarantee due process in judicial proceedings".
"The defendants in this case were arrested in accordance with
warrants issued by the relevant investigative body, the Office of the
Public Prosecutor; due process was adhered to with all of the
defendants," the ministry said, noting the journalists still had the
right to appeal.
But the ministry's statement fell on deaf ears.
Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years in prison,
while Mohamed received a 10-year term. Out of six others on trial
alongside journalists, two were acquitted and four were sentenced to
seven years.
The court also sentenced a number of other journalists to
10-year sentences in absentia, including al-Jazeera journalists Sue
Turton and Dominic Kane, both from the UK and the Dutch journalist Rena
Netjes, who has no association with Jazeera.
Egypt’s prosecutor general claimed the journalists had used
unlicensed equipment to broadcast false information to defame and
destabilise Egypt. Fahmy and Mohamed were further accused of being
members of the Muslim Brotherhood. All deny the charges, as do the
others who were charged and tried in absentia.
Outside the court, Greste’s brothers Andrew and Michael
struggled to make sense of the guilty verdict and the harsh sentences –
both have been in court over the last six months and like all observers
did not see any evidence presented that backed the prosecution’s claims.
“Gutted,” Andrew Greste said when asked how he was feeling
outside the court at Tora Prison in Cairo. “All those words really don’t
do my emotions justice.
Vowing that the family would fight on against the conviction,
Andrew said the Egyptian authorities assured his family the trial would
be fair and the justice system independent.
“It definitely wasn't an outcome we were expecting … we have
had a family representative at each of the court session and I find it
very difficult to understand how we get a decision like that.”
“[Peter] is not going to give up,” Andrew said. “Obviously he
is going to be shattered as well as I am sure it was not an outcome he
was expecting.”
The family is considering both a legal appeal to Egypt’s
Court of Cassation and an appeal for clemency or a pardon from President
al-Sisi.
The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also condemned the Jazeera verdicts.
Along with Saturday’s confirmation by an Egyptian court of
the death penalty for 183 Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters
convicted in an earlier mass trial, the journalists’ sentences are the
latest in a string of prosecutions and proceedings that have been “rife
with procedural irregularities and in breach of international human
rights law,” Ms Pillay said.
“It is not a crime to carry a camera, or to try to report
various points of views about events,” Ms Pillay said. “It is not a
crime to criticise the authorities, or to interview people who hold
unpopular views.
“Journalists and civil society members should not be
arrested, prosecuted, beaten up or sacked for reporting on sensitive
issues. They should not be shot for trying to report or film things we,
the public, have a right to know are happening.”
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