Thursday, 12 February 2015

Egypt court grants bail to Al Jazeera journalists

                                 
   

An Egyptian court has granted bail to the detained Al Jazeera journalists Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy.
A retrial was ordered by the country's Court of Cassation last month, overturning a lower court's verdict that had falsely found them guilty of helping the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
"Bail is a small step in the right direction, and allows Baher and Mohamed to spend time with their families after 411 days apart," an Al Jazeera spokesman said on Thursday.
"The focus though is still on the court reaching the correct verdict at the next hearing by dismissing this absurd case and releasing both these fine journalists unconditionally."
Judge Hassan Farid said the next hearing would be on February 23.
A third Al Jazeera journalist, Peter Greste, who was also to be retried, was deported on February 1 under a presidential decree after spending 400 days in prison. He has since returned to his home in Australia.
However, the judge read out Greste's during Thursday's trial in Cairo.


                                                        

0 comments: