Getting imprisoned on fabricated charges and merely based on what appears to be just the whims of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al Sisi and his military advisers, the three Al Jazeera journalists have been languishing in a Cairo jail for over a year now.
Sky News reports that the three journalists from the Qatar-based Al Jazeera are Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy, Australian Peter Greste, and Egyptian Baher Mohamed.
They have been held by the Egyptian authorities since December 2013 on accusations that they were members of the radical Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that is in opposition to President al Sisi. The three were also allegedly fabricating news and jeopardizing Egypt’s national security by calling for a civil war.
Far from terrorism
The articles of the three on Al Jazeera were actually far from inciting terror but given the stature of President al Sisi as a military autocrat, paranoia got the better of him and his advisers, resulting to the apprehension of the journalists on terror charges. And because of the seriousness of the accusations, they were not allowed to post bail.
The detention of the three journalists has resulted to an international outcry against the Egyptian government. There have been numerous calls from other journalists in other parts of the world for the immediate release of the Al Jazeera journos.
US President Barrack Obama even asked the Egyptian president last year to free the Al Jazeera journalists but the request obviously fell on deaf ears.
Mohamed Fahmy, one of the three detained journalists, disclosed that they were just caught in between the dispute of Egypt and Qatar on the Muslim Brotherhood. He added that they were actually hostages but Egypt is not asking Qatar for any kind of ransom.
Fahmy bared that Egypt may be issuing some sort of statement to Qatar for suing its government for closing their offices in Cairo.
A reprieve for freedom
Under a new presidential decree issued in November 2014, Egyptian president al Sisi can actually pardon the three or order the deportation of two of the three detained journalists. But he decided against it so as not to directly admit that there was fault on the Egyptian criminal justice system, cites The Independent.
Instead, a retrial on the case of the imprisoned journalists has been set, giving the three and their families a new hope for freedom that came with the New Year.
The decision for a retrial came out after an Egyptian appeals court reported flaws in the original hearing of the three journalists.
The journalists and their families welcomed the retrial as a positive step in the legal process as it enabled them to have hope towards finally being released from detention.
Some of the family members of the journalists are also hoping that the journalists would be allowed to post bail during the retrial. But given the seriousness of the charges they are facing, it is unlikely that they would be allowed to do so.