Human rights groups and media organisations have condemned the seven-year sentences handed to Australian journalist Peter Greste and two colleagues in Egypt as illogical, farcical, absurd and an attack on press freedom.
After six months in custody in Egypt, Al Jazeera journalists Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were found guilty on Monday of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been declared a terrorist organisation, and reporting false news.
They were each sentenced to seven years in jail.
Australia's media union says the jail terms are an appalling attack on press freedom and threatens all media working in Egypt.
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) labelled the court proceedings "farcical".
"There has not been a shred of evidence presented by the prosecution that in any way implicates the journalists in the charges of defaming Egypt and having ties to the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood," the MEAA said in a statement.
The head of Al Jazeera English says the sentencing of three colleagues defies logic, sense and any semblance of justice.
"Not a shred of evidence was found to support the extraordinary and false charges against them," managing director Al Anstey said in a statement.
"At no point during the long drawn out "trial" did the absurd allegations stand up to scrutiny.
"There were many moments during the hearings where in any other court of law, the trial would be thrown out. There were numerous irregularities in addition to the lack of evidence to stand up the ill-conceived allegations.
"There is only one sensible outcome now. For the verdict to be overturned, and justice to be recognised by Egypt.
"We must keep our voice loud to call for an end to their detention. Alongside us is a worldwide solidarity, a global call for their release, and a demand for basic freedoms to be respected.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the verdict was a stark admission that practising journalism in Egypt was a crime.
"...and that the new constitution's guarantees of free expression are not worth the paper they are written on," HRW Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement.
"The right to free expression is at the heart of any democracy.
"These convictions should immediately be quashed, charges dropped, and the journalists immediately released."
Australian human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson QC weighed in on the outcry, calling it an outrage.
He called on the Australian government to act against Egypt under an international convention that guarantees freedom of expression.
"After Australia's success against Japan in the whaling case, we should be making more use of international legal avenues, and this is the only way in a world forum that Peter could be vindicated," he said in a statement.
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