(Reuters) – Three Al Jazeera journalists were jailed for seven years each by an Egyptian judge on Monday, in what Washington called “chilling, draconian sentences” that must be reversed.
Cairo defended the journalists’ convictions – for aiding a “terrorist organisation” – and rejected the widespread condemnation as “interference in its internal affairs”.
The three, who all denied the charge of working with the now banned Muslim Brotherhood, included Australian Peter Greste and Canadian-Egyptian national Mohamed Fahmy, Cairo bureau chief of Al Jazeera English.
The third defendant, Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed, was given an extra three years for possessing a single bullet, at the hearing attended by Western diplomats, some of whose governments summoned Egypt’s ambassadors over the case.
The men have been held at Egypt’s notorious Tora Prison for six months, with the case becoming a rallying point for rights groups and news organisations around the world.
They were detained in late December and charged with helping “a terrorist group” – a reference to the Muslim brotherhood – by broadcasting lies that harmed national security and supplying money, equipment and information to a group of Egyptians.
