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Al Jazeera damns video of reporter arrests

Al Jazeera condemns a video - complete with "sinister" dramatic music - showing the arrest of their journalists in Cairo, including Australian Peter Greste

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Peter Greste (File: Getty)

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Source: AAP


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Al Jazeera has condemned the release of a video showing the arrest of their journalists, including Australian Peter Greste, in Cairo last month.

Broadcast on an Egyptian channel on Monday night and backed by a sinister musical score, the nearly 22-minute raid on the journalists' hotel rooms was apparently recorded with a mobile phone.

Al Jazeera says the leak and dramatisation of the footage betrays an attempt to demonise the journalists, and is the latest incident of incitement against the network.

It could also prejudice the trial that the Egyptian authorities say they wish to pursue, the network said.

"If this video was deliberately leaked, it violates basic standards of justice. If it came out by mistake, the professionalism of the prosecution process is called into question," Al Jazeera director of English News Salah Negm said in a statement.

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"The video ridiculously sets images of our crews laptops, cameras and mobile phones against dramatic music.

"They were also not operating in Cairo secretly. The team openly filed several packages and live reports prior to their arrest."

Al Jazeera says the footage shows its acting Cairo bureau chief, Mohammed Fahmy, a Canadian-Egyptian, and Australia's award-winning correspondent Peter Greste being interrogated at the hotel suite just before the arrest.

Mr Greste's parents said last week they had reached breaking point when it was announced their son had been referred to trial for "airing false news".

Lois and Juris Greste fear their son could be held in detention for up to two years without being formally charged.

He is now in solitary confinement in Cairo's maximum security Tora prison and is only allowed four hours of exercise time a day.

"From our point of view, with such scant and difficult communications, it is just certainly taking us to literally breaking point, which we in fact reached a couple of days ago," Mr Greste told reporters.

Mrs Greste said the family was receiving regular updates from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has spoken at length with Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi about the issue.


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