Calls on Egypt to pardon jailed reporters

Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were given the sentences on Saturday in Cairo following a retrial. Australian Peter Greste, who was deported to Australia earlier this year, was on trial in absentia.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement: "The United States is deeply disappointed and concerned by the verdict handed down by an Egyptian court to the three Al-Jazeera journalists - Mohammed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed, and Peter Greste."

"We urge the government of Egypt to take all available measures to redress this verdict, which undermines the very freedom of expression necessary for stability and development," Kirby added.

Canada called for Fahmy's "full and immediate release," after the verdict. "Senior Canadian officials in Canada and in Cairo are pressing Egyptian authorities on Mr Fahmy's case. This includes advocating for the same treatment of Mr Fahmy as other foreign nationals have received," Canadian Minister of State Lynne Yelich said in a statement.

The three men were detained in December 2013 while working for the Qatar-based network. They were first sentenced in June 2014, with Greste and Fahmy jailed for seven years and Baher Mohamed for ten years. Their convictions were overturned in January and they were released on bail in February to await retrial.

Judge Hassan Farid ruled that the men were not journalists and that they had operated without a press license or registering with the country's journalist syndicate. He said they had brought equipment into the country without the approval of security officials and spread "false news."

Greste reacted strongly to the sentence: "Words really don't do justice," he said. "To be given three-year sentences is outrageous. It is just devastating for me."

Presidential pardon

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who was in the court room representing Fahmy (both pictured above before sentencing) called on Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi to issue a pardon to the journalists.

"Everyone has said there is no evidence to sustain any of the charges and Egypt's own Supreme Court, when they looked at this case they said there wasn't sufficient evidence so the verdict today sends a very dangerous message in Egypt," she told reporters after the sentencing.

"It sends a message that journalists can be locked up for simply doing their job, for telling the truth and reporting the news. It sends a dangerous message that there are judges in Egypt who will allow their courts to become instruments of political repression and propaganda," Clooney added.

Al-Jazeera condemned the court's decision in a statement read by the channel's general director, Mostefa Souag: "This judgment is a new attack on the freedom of the press, and it's a black day in the history of the Egyptian judiciary."

British ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, said the country's stability should not be built on a "shaky foundation which deprives people of their rights and undermines the freedom of the press and freedom of expression." President el-Sisi is due to visit the UK on Prime Minister David Cameron's invitation.

Philip Luther, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa said "The fact that two of these journalists are now facing time in jail following two grossly unfair trials makes a mockery of justice in Egypt."

The European Union and the Committee to Protect Journalists said the verdict was "emblematic of the threats faced by journalists in Egypt," where it said at least 22 journalists were wrongfully behind bars.

jm/jr (Reuters, AP, AFP)