Retrial for newsmen jailed in Egypt

Al-Jazeera English producer Baher Mohamed, left, Canadian-Egyptian acting Cairo bureau chief Mohammed Fahmy, center, and correspondent Peter Greste, right. Photo / AP

An appeal hearing in Cairo last night ordered a retrial for Australian journalist Peter Greste and his two Al-Jazeera Television colleagues.

The decision by Egypt's Court of Cassation came after a hearing that lasted only a few minutes.

However, Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohammed, who have been in jail for more than a year, were not granted bail.

The trio - imprisoned for news reporting considered damaging to Egypt's national security, didn't attend the hearing, and other journalists were not allowed in.

Lawyers for the trio said they believed the retrial would be within a month.

The Egyptian authorities had accused Qatar-based Al-Jazeera of acting as a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood.

The station denied the accusation and said the journalists were just doing their job.
Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years' jail, while Mohammed got three years more, because he was found with a spent bullet casing.

Rights groups dismissed the trial as a sham and foreign countries, including Australia and the United States, expressed their concern over the journalists' detention.

Last night, Peter Greste's mother, Lois, said the appeal court's ruling was "not as good as we hoped".

Adel Fahmy, Mohammed Fahmy's brother, said he had hoped his sibling would be freed.
He said each lawyer received just three minutes to argue his case.

There had been expectations the journalists would be released amid a thawing of Cairo's ties with Qatar.