Peter Greste: Egyptian court delays verdict in al-Jazeera case again
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Version 0 of 1. Peter Greste says he and two colleagues will not be truly free until a Egyptian court exonerates the trio of terrorism-related charges. The Australian journalist and his al-Jazeera colleagues, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, suffered another hiccup on Sunday when the verdict in their retrial was adjourned to 29 August. It was the latest setback in a prolonged case that has attracted the criticism of press freedom advocates worldwide. Greste said although they are all physically out of prison, until the case was resolved they couldn’t get on with their lives. “I guess the main message for us is even though the three of us are physically out of prison, until this whole mess is over, until we are fully exonerated of all of the charges, none of us are really truly free,” he told AAP. Greste and his colleagues were jailed last year for spreading false news and supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood during their coverage of the turmoil following the ousting of president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. An appeals court ordered a retrial and, after more than 400 days in jail, the three journalists were released. Greste was deported and his colleagues were freed on bail. The Australian couldn’t return to Egypt without violating his deportation order and is being tried in absentia. The verdict in their retrial was due last Thursday but the hearing was adjourned, with no reason given. On Sunday Greste had been very hopeful he would finally see a verdict. However it seemed one of the judges was sick and the replacement judge wasn’t there, he said. While Greste is home in Australia, Mohamed and Fahmy go to court not knowing if they will see their family again. “Every time they go they have to hug and kiss their families not knowing if they are going to see them again and that is tough,” he said. Fahmy criticised the delay. “Verdict postponed until August 29th The audacity & continuous disrespect to our rights is unprecedented!” he tweeted minutes after the judge postponed the verdict. |