Al-Jazeera journalists jailed for seven years in Egypt
seven years each in prison on terrorism-related charges.
Australian correspondent Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian acting Cairo bureau chief Mohammed Fahmy, and Egyptian producer Baher Mohammed, were sentenced on Monday. Mohammed was sentenced to three extra years on a separate charge.
Three other journalists who were tried in absentia were given 10-year sentences.
The trio were being tried alongside five students with links to Islamist protests, and the head of an Islamic charity, in an attempt to portray the journalists as the masterminds of a Muslim Brotherhood-linked plot to smear Egypt's reputation. In Egyptian media, the whole group is known as "the Marriott cell", after the hotel from where Fahmy and Greste were arrested. The journalists and students say they had never met each other before arriving at court for the first time in February.
The case has been portrayed by Egyptian media as a rightful attack on enemies of the state, as Al-Jazeera are seen in Egypt. But internationally the trial is seen as an affront to free speech – a point that American officials said the US secretary of state, John Kerry, stressed privately on a brief visit to Cairo on Sunday.
"We have made it clear to the Egyptians in the past, publicly and privately, and will continue to do so on this trip that we would like to see these journalists released," one state department official said.
Evidence presented by the prosecution included several videos with little or no connection to Egyptian politics or Al-Jazeera. These include a programme about horse welfare by Sky News Arabia, a BBC documentary about Somalia, raw footage of a Kenyan press conference and a song by Gotye, an Australian singer-songwriter.
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