Egypt Postpones Verdict for Al Jazeera Journalists

Mr Greste and colleagues Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy were jailed last year for spreading false news and supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood during their coverage of the turmoil following the ousting of president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. A Cairo court session which had been expected to deliver a verdict on Thursday in the retrial of Al Jazeera television journalists has been adjourned, Al Jazeera said on its Twitter feed.

A court in Egypt has delayed reading the verdict in the re-trail of three Al Jazeera journalists who have been accused of aiding a terrorist organization. “We demand the Egyptian authorities bring an end to the charges against Baher, Peter and Mohamed which should be dropped immediately”, Dr Souag said, adding “journalism is not a crime”. The three men were later convicted, with a judge sentencing Greste and Fahmy to seven years in prison and Mohamed to 10 years. An appeals court subsequently ordered a retrial, saying the verdict lacked evidence against the three journalists working for the Qatari-based network’s English channel.

Greste has already been deported to his native Australia under a law allowing the transfer of foreigners on trial to their home countries but he is still being retried in absentia.

Al-Jazeera said it was “extremely angry” at the latest delay. The network regarded the postponement as a means of pressuring the journalists and their families and called for the dropping of all charges against them.

“We have seen so many unexpected twists and turns in this trial”. Mohamed and Fahmy have remained in Egypt on bail. “We can not make any plans or even think of travelling”.

A dual Canadian-Egyptian citizen, Fahmy was asked to give up his Egyptian nationality by Egyptian officials in order to qualify for deportation.