Egyptian court sentences 2 Al-Jazeera employees to death

He has also been sentenced with a 20-year jail term for allegedly committing murder.

Alaa Sablan, who was an Al Jazeera employee until previous year, as well as Asmaa Alkhatib, a journalist with the pro-Muslim Brotherhood Rassd News Network, were also sentenced to death in absentia. The ruling is Morsi’s second sentence after he was found guilty of espionage previous year for collaborating with the Islamic Resistance Movement of Hamas.

The charge of espionage on Qatar against a former president and mediamen is surprising and unacceptable, he said.

Those sentenced to death include Ibrahim Helal, former director of news at Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel.

All of Saturday’s verdicts can be appealed.

He has since been slapped with life-in-prison and death sentences for “conspiring against Egypt” – with Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah – and for breaking out of jail in 2011.

Al-Jazeera condemned the verdicts, saying they were part of a “ruthless” campaign against freedom of expression, and called on the worldwide community to show solidarity with the journalists.

Amnesty International condemned Saturday’s death sentences.

Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected leader, was ousted by the military in July 2013 and has already been sentenced to death in another case.

The death sentences were sent to the mufti – Egypt’s official interpreter of Islamic law – as his opinion is legally required on death sentences although it is not binding.

Egypt’s relations with Qatar have been fraught with tension since the ouster of Morsi, who enjoyed the support of the tiny but wealthy Gulf state.

But after about one year in office, he was overthrown and detained by then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is now Egypt’s president. The two Al Jazeera employees were awarded death in absentia, as they are out of the country.

The three were sentenced – Greste in absentia – to three years in prison after a lengthy retrial.

Egypt was ranked 158 out of 180 countries in the 2015 Press Freedom Index, according to Reporters Without Borders. Mohamed Fahmy, an Egyptian-born Canadian, and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were arrested in December 2013.

He said that Qatar has been and will remain committed to the fraternal values and bonds with the brotherly Egyptian people.