Egypt postpones verdict for Al Jazeera journalists

An Egyptian court postponed a session Thursday where it was due to announce a verdict in the retrial of three Al Jazeera journalists charged with supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Al Jazeera said it is “extremely angry” that the Cairo court postponed the verdict for Canadian national Mohamed Fahmy, Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Australian Peter […]

An Egyptian court postponed a session Thursday where it was due to announce a verdict in the retrial of three Al Jazeera journalists charged with supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Al Jazeera said it is “extremely angry” that the Cairo court postponed the verdict for Canadian national Mohamed Fahmy, Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Australian Peter Greste.  A new session is expected to take place next week.
The network has maintained that the journalists were doing their jobs in reporting news when they were arrested in December 2013.  The three men were later convicted, with a judge sentencing Greste and Fahmy to seven years in prison and Mohamed to 10 years.
An appeals court ruled in January that they should be given a new trial after prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence to show they supported the Brotherhood.
The proceedings have been delayed several times, including Thursday’s postponement that court officials attributed to the judge in the case being sick.
Greste was freed and sent back to Australia in February, while Mohamed and Fahmy remain free in Egypt on bail.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, one of several press freedom groups to criticize the proceedings, said the three men “have been persecuted enough” for doing their jobs.