Cairo: An Egyptian court postponed on Thursday its verdict in the retrial of three Al Jazeera journalists accused of supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood, in a case that has sparked a global outcry.
Australian Peter Greste, Canadian Mohammad Fahmi and Egyptian Baher Mohammad were jailed last year for “spreading false news” during their coverage of the turmoil after the army ousted Islamist president Mohammad Mursi in 2013.
Greste, who has since been deported, and Fahmi received seven years in the initial trial, while Mohammad was jailed for ten years.
An appeals court ordered a retrial, saying the verdict lacked evidence against the three journalists working for the Doha-based network’s English channel.
On Thursday the court did not hold its much-anticipated session, with a defence lawyer saying he had been told it was postponed.
The ruling is now expected on August 2, state news agency Mena reported. Earlier some relatives and lawyers said it was set for August 8.
“We are extremely angry that the verdict has been adjourned today,” Al Jazeera’s English-language channel said on Twitter.
Thursday’s session had been keenly awaited by rights groups and families of the defendants.
“The entire world has its eyes turned on Egypt because this is a decisive trial for media freedom,” the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said on Wednesday.
Mohammad said the postponing of the verdict was “very strange”.
“It’s disturbing that the trial was postponed without informing our lawyers,” he said outside the court.
“I don’t want to predict anything about the verdict. Anything could happen.”
An angry Fahmi said the delay was an insult to the defendants and their families.
“It was a very difficult week waiting for the verdict. I brought a bag with blue clothes and toothbrush, and now it’s a more difficult week” ahead, he said.
“We have been in a nightmare for 19 months ... I see the postponement as another insult to us, our families, our lawyers because no one informed us officially.”
If convicted, the journalists can appeal to Egypt’s Court of Cassation, which can uphold or cancel the ruling. If it cancels the verdict it will examine the case itself.
Greste has already been deported under a law allowing the transfer of foreigners on trial to their home countries but he is being retried in absentia.
Fahmi and Mohammad were freed on bail earlier this year, having spent more than 400 days in detention.
Fahmi has renounced his Egyptian nationality, hoping that he too would be deported like Greste.
“If this trial is fair, me and my colleagues have to be acquitted,” Fahmi said on Wednesday, adding that a court committee had acknowledged that there had been “no fabrication” in their coverage.
The court had also been due to give its ruling on Thursday on five Egyptian co-defendants sentenced previously to up to ten years for being members of the Brotherhood and for “damaging the public image of Egypt”.
The three journalists were arrested in December 2013 during a crackdown on supporters of Mursi, who was ousted by then army chief and now President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi after mass street protests against his year of divisive rule.
The initial trial came against the backdrop of strained ties between Egypt and Qatar, which supported Mursi’s government.
The journalists were also accused of working without valid media accreditation.
Fahmi has since lashed out at Al Jazeera, accusing it of negligence and backing the Brotherhood. He has sued the network for $100 million (Dh367.3 million.)
Al Jazeera has repeatedly denounced the trials as “political”.
The network’s Arabic-language channel had condemned Mursi’s removal and the subsequent police crackdown that left hundreds of people dead and thousands jailed.
Rights groups say journalists in Egypt are facing unprecedented threats from the regime installed by Sisi.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 18 journalists are locked up in Egypt, the most since it began keeping records in 1990.
“I will continue the fight for press freedoms until the end. This is not just about the three of us. It’s about journalists in the whole world,” said Mohammad.
