Cairo: An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced journalists working with the Qatari Al Jazeera TV network to three years each in a retrial on terrorism charges in a high-profile case that ran for more than a year.
The verdict by the Cairo Criminal Court came after two delays prompted by the illness of the presiding judge.
The case involves Mohammad Fahmi, a Canadian, Baher Mohammad and their Australian colleague Peter Greste, who was released from prison and deported from Egypt earlier this year but was retried in absentia.
The three were arrested in late 2013 in a police raid on the Nile-side Marriot Hotel in Cairo. They were charged with aiding the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and spreading false news about Egypt.
Prior to Saturday’s verdict, Fahmi tweeted: “Nervously optimistic-as judgment nears the adrenaline rises. Knowing ess & family are there for us is a mountain of support.”
Fahmi has renounced his Egyptian citizenship to qualify for deportation from the country under a decree issued by President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, giving him the right to deport foreigners charged or convicted in Egypt to their home countries to be tried or serve sentences there.
In January this year, Egypt's top appeals court ordered a retrial for them after quashing jail terms ranging from seven to 10 years given to them earlier by a lower court.
The jail sentences triggered an international outcry and raised concerns about freedom of expression in Egypt.
