General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFREE THE AL-JAZEERA 3!. Hey, Al-Sisi, you want those Apache Missiles?
Free Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed or no toys for you. No aid of any kind until you stop disappearing both Muslim Brotherhood supporters and liberal activists. No aid for you until you shut the black sites and stop detention without charges and notifications. No aid for you until you stop torturing.
That's what the administration should be saying and hopefully, (but doubtful) that's what they are saying to the Egyptian strongman.
Oh, and while you're at it, nix the 10 year in absentia sentences for the other journalists.
cali
(114,904 posts)of vacations found on his laptop and a spent bullet which got Fahmy 3 extra years for possession of a "weapon".
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Anyone can post on craigslist and its a global message board IMO. In every country.
http://cairo.craigslist.org/
cali
(114,904 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)I thought I had heard that there were nine journalists on trial. But, as you have pointed out, it's not just journalists that are being rounded up and jailed on trumped up charges. Why the administration would continue to back this mess in Egypt is beyond me.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/23/us-egypt-jazeera-idUSKBN0EY0L720140623
(quote)
(Reuters) - Three Al Jazeera journalists were jailed for seven years each by an Egyptian judge on Monday, in what Washington called "chilling, draconian sentences" that must be reversed.
Cairo defended the journalists' convictions - for aiding a "terrorist organisation" - and rejected the widespread condemnation as "interference in its internal affairs".
The three, who all denied the charge of working with the now banned Muslim Brotherhood, included Australian Peter Greste and Canadian-Egyptian national Mohamed Fahmy, Cairo bureau chief of Al Jazeera English.
The third defendant, Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed, was given an extra three years for possessing a single bullet, at the hearing attended by Western diplomats, some of whose governments summoned Egypt's ambassadors over the case.
The men have been held at Egypt's notorious Tora Prison for six months, with the case becoming a rallying point for rights groups and news organisations around the world.
They were detained in late December and charged with helping "a terrorist group" - a reference to the Muslim brotherhood - by broadcasting lies that harmed national security and supplying money, equipment and information to a group of Egyptians.
The Brotherhood was banned and declared a terrorist group after the army deposed elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July following mass protests against his rule. The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful organisation.
Al Jazeera, whose Qatari owners back the Brotherhood and have been at odds with Egypt's leadership, said the ruling defied "logic, sense and any semblance of justice". "There is only one sensible outcome now. For the verdict to be overturned, and justice to be recognised by Egypt," Al Jazeera English managing director Al Anstey said in a statement.
The ruling came a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met newly elected Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo and raised the issue of the journalists.
On Monday, Kerry said he called Egypt's foreign minister to register his "serious displeasure" at the "chilling, draconian sentences".
"Injustices like these simply cannot stand if Egypt is to move forward in the way that President al-Sisi and Foreign Minister (Sameh) Shoukry told me just yesterday that they aspire to see their country advance," Kerry said in a statement.
(unquote)
cali
(114,904 posts)He knows they need him because they need a stable Egypt. Several other journalists were convicted and sentenced in absentia- to ten year terms each.