Egypt court adjourns Al Jazeera retrial

The retrial of three Al Jazeera journalists accused of supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement has been adjourned to next week.

Journalists Baher Mohamed (L)Mohammed Fahmy (R) and Peter Greste

Journalists Baher Mohamed (L) and Mohammed Fahmy (R) (AAP)

An Egyptian court has adjourned the retrial of three Al Jazeera journalists accused of supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement to next Wednesday, after listening to expert witnesses.

Australian journalist Peter Greste, who was deported to his home country in February, is being tried in absentia.

Also on trial are Canadian reporter Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed, as well as others, all of whom attended Thursday's hearing as free men after the judge released them at their first retrial hearing.

Greste, Fahmy and Mohamed, who are accused of "spreading false news" while covering demonstrations after the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, spent more than a year in prison.

Last year, the trio were sentenced to seven to ten years in jail, but an appeals court in January granted them a retrial, saying the verdict had not been supported by evidence.

On Thursday, the court ordered the creation of a new technical committee to review the videos used as prosecution evidence, an AFP journalist said.

It also heard several witnesses, including a member of the technical committee whose testimony was used during the first trial.

The expert denied the conclusions of the technical report attributed to him that was used against the defendants in the first trial.

"I did not write in the report if (the videos) are a threat to state security or not," Kamel Mohamed Kamel said.

"Some videos have been edited, but I can not say if they have altered the reality (of events) or not," he added.

The journalists were arrested in December 2013 during a crackdown on Morsi's supporters.

Their initial trial came against the backdrop of strained ties between Egypt and Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based and which supported Morsi.


Share
2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP

Tags

Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world