Democratic governments and reporters from around the world are calling for the immediate release of three Al-Jazeera journalists who were recently sentenced to seven to 10 years in prison after being convicted of terrorism charges in Egypt.

The three reporters – Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohammed - were convicted in what observers called a sham trial that offered little in the way of actual evidence.


The verdict came despite international pressure from, among others, Secretary of State John Kerry, who had discussed the case in a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi just a day before the sentencing in June, according to The Associated Press.

Kerry called the verdict "chilling and draconian."

The conviction of the three reporters clearly had political undertones. Last year, Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was ousted by el-Sissi, then the head of the army. Since then the Egyptian government has waged a crackdown on Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood. Observers say the Egyptian government is deeply suspicious of the Gulf nation Qatar, which owns the Al-Jazeera network and had been a close ally of Morsi.

The three journalists were arrested in December during a raid on Al-Jazeera’s studio in a Marriott Hotel. They were accused of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood by slanting their coverage of protests by Morsi's supporters to make it seem as if the country was heading toward a civil war.

But the evidence offered at their trial was flimsy at best. When asked to show the allegedly biased reports downloaded from the defendants’ laptops, prosecutors could offer nothing but unrelated images of Greste’s family vacation, horses in a pasture, and a news conference Greste had covered in Kenya.

"The trial was almost farcical, and among the evidence admitted were family vacation photos and footage of news reports from other networks on unrelated subjects," wrote Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Simon wrote that the "verdict has nothing to the do with the law. It's a transparently politicized result, in which the Al-Jazeera journalists have become pawns in a conflict with Qatar over its support for the Muslim Brotherhood. The verdict thus represents a political crisis for President el-Sisi - one he must find a way to resolve if he wants to achieve his goal of legitimating the government and restoring his country's international standing.

"Egypt cannot be allowed to normalize its international relationships so long as it continues to jail journalists," Simon added, noting that Egypt is currently holding at least 14 reporters in prison, making it among the world's worst jailers of journalists.

The White House issued a statement urging the Egyptian government to pardon the journalists or commute their sentences.

"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," the statement said. "As we have said many times before, democracy is about more than elections. True democracy requires thriving democratic institutions, including a vibrant free press that is empowered to hold the government accountable to the people."

Dozens of journalists from around the world sent a letter to el-Sissi asking that the three be released.

"Whatever the verdict, we firmly believe that the release of the journalists - by acquittal, presidential pardon, or some other act of clemency - will send a positive message to Egypt and the world. It will demonstrate the confidence and stability of the government as well as an appreciation of the important role of journalism," the letter read.
Greste, who had previously worked for the BBC, had only been in Egypt for a few days when he was arrested. Fahmy had previously worked for CNN, The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. Mohamed previously worked for The Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper.
The CPJ recently issued a report that listed Egypt as one of the world's deadliest countries for reporters. CBS correspondent Lara Logan was beaten and sexually assaulted in Cairo in February 2011 while covering the celebrations sparked by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation.

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