The world has condemned Egypt after finding Al Jazeera journalists guilty. Two have been sentenced to a jail term of seven and one to ten years by an Egyptian court .Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy, and Baher Mohamed were convicted for aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and reporting false news.
Baher Mohamed got an addition of three years for possession of ammunition; a used bullet casing he picked from the ground during the protests.
The three were arrested in December last year as they covered th e aftermath of Morsi ouster in July.
The Muslim Brotherhood that saw ousted president Morsi ascend to presidency last year, was declared a "terrorist" organization by the interim president Adly Mansour .
Other Al Jazeera journalists Alaa Bayoumi, Anas Abdel-Wahab Khalawi Hasan, Khaleel Aly Khaleel Bahnasy, Mohamed Fawzi, Dominic Kane, and Sue Turton.were tried in absentia and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Al Jazeera has termed the verdict as defying "logic,sense and any semblance of justice".“There is only one sensible outcome now. For the verdict to be overturned, and justice to be recognized by Egypt," Al Jazeera English managing director Al Anstey said in a statement.
"Today three colleagues and friends were sentenced, and will continue to
be kept behind bars for doing a brilliant job of being great
journalists. 'Guilty' of covering stories with great skill and
integrity. 'Guilty' of defending people’s right to know what is going on
in their world," Anstey said in a statement.
There are emerging questions as to why the US has given Egypt $500 million as military aid. Am not surprised by this,last year Hillary Clinton was accused of having a hand in planning and funding the Morsi coup d'etat. The boggling question is whether USA is funding militia to oust legitimate governments,create puppet leadership and fund them to fight perceived terrorists.
The verdict is a dark day for the media freedom that is enshrined in sober democracies .
The verdict can however be appealed in a higher court of law. Egypt's public prosecutor last week ordered
the release of another Al Jazeera journalist, Abdullah al-Shamy, on
health grounds after he spent more than 130 days on hunger strike.
Al jazeera was banned from live coverage in Egypt on July 3 , hours after Morsi ouster.
Injustice is strife which arises among the principles of meddlesomeness ,interference and confused part of souls -Socrates
No comments:
Post a Comment