World condemns Egypt over jailing journalists
The White House is calling on Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to pardon Australian Peter Greste and two other Al Jazeera journalists sentenced to long jail terms or to commute their sentences.
“We call on the Egyptian government to pardon these individuals or commute their sentences so that they can be released immediately, and grant clemency for all politically motivated sentences,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Monday.
The White House called for clemency after Secretary of State John Kerry – a day after visiting Cairo – called the verdicts handed down against the journalists as “chilling and draconian”.
An Egyptian court earlier sentenced Greste and his colleagues to jail terms ranging from seven to 10 years, accusing them of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.
He and Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy each got seven years, while Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed received two sentences – one for seven years and another for three.
“The prosecution of journalists for reporting information that does not coincide with the government of Egypt’s narrative flouts the most basic standards of media freedom and represents a blow to democratic progress in Egypt,” Earnest said.
“Perhaps most disturbing, is (that) this verdict comes as part of the succession of prosecutions and verdicts that are fundamentally incompatible with the basic precepts of human rights and democratic governance.
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“We strongly urge President al-Sisi, in the spirit of his pledge to review all human rights legislation, to provide the protections for free expression and assembly as well as the fair trial safeguards that are required by Egypt’s international obligations.”
Australia is also vowing to go straight to the top of the Egyptian government in a bid to free Greste.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he is bewildered by the court’s decision to jail Greste.
In his first public comments since the Al Jazeera reporter was sentenced, Abbott said his government would seek to ensure his release “as quickly as possible”.
“We’re obviously shocked, dismayed, really bewildered by the decision of the court in Egypt,” Abbott told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
The Abbott government sought to summon Egypt’s ambassador to a meeting at the Department of Foreign Affairs on Trade on Tuesday but has learned he is actually in Cairo.
His deputy will be called in instead.
Abbott said his government would talk “calmly, patiently and reasonably” with the Egyptian government.
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“What we don’t want to do is engage in unhelpful megaphone diplomacy because that won’t do Peter Greste any good,” he said.
While Australia respected the legitimacy of the new Egyptian government and Egyptian justice system, and its crackdown on extremists, Abbott said it was important there be “due process”.
However, he said he did not want to be critical of the government.
“The Egyptian court system does work at arms length from the government, but I do understand that once the court system has done its work then there are options for presidential acts, presidential clemency, presidential pardons and so on,” he said.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay also slammed the jailing of the Al Jazeera journalists.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said she was “shocked and alarmed” by the sentencing on Monday of Greste and his colleagues, and 11 others punished in absentia with up to a decade in prison.
The verdicts, along with the confirmation on Saturday by an Egyptian court of the death penalty for 183 people linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, are the latest in a line of court cases “rife with procedural irregularities and in breach with international human rights law”, Pillay said.
The journalists had been accused of aiding the blacklisted Brotherhood and tarnishing Egypt’s reputation after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by “spreading false news”.
Such charges are “far too broad and vague,” Pillay said, insisting they “reinforce the belief that the real target is freedom of expression”.
“It is not a crime to carry a camera,” she said, adding: “It is not a crime to criticise the authorities or to interview people who hold unpopular views.”
Pillay urged the authorities to “promptly release” all journalists and media employees jailed for doing their job.
She also voiced alarm that for journalists, bloggers and activists in Egypt, “harassment, detention and prosecution … as well as violent attacks by unidentified assailants, have become commonplace.”
– News agencies
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