Why Egypt has been taken off the growing list of places I won't be visiting any time soon:
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Egypt jails Al Jazeera journalists for 7 years
By Claer Barrett in London and Heba Saleh in Cairo
Last updated: June 23, 2014 12:13 pm
Al Jazeera journalists (L-R) Peter Greste, Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed stand behind bars at a court in Cairo in this June 1, 2014 file photograph. An Egyptian judge sentenced three Al Jazeera journalists on June 23, 2014 to seven years in jail after finding them guilty on charges including helping a "terrorist organisation" by publishing lies. The three include Australian Greste, Al Jazeera's Kenya-based correspondent, and Canadian-Egyptian national Fahmy, bureau chief of Al Jazeera English. A third defendant, Egyptian producer Mohamed, received an additional three-year jail sentence on a separate charge involving possession of weapons.
Three journalists working for the Qatar-owned Al Jazeera news channel have been sentenced to seven years in jail in Egypt on terrorism-related charges, igniting international outrage over the guilty verdict and media restrictions in the country.
The journalists include Peter Greste, an award-winning Australian correspondent, and Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, Al Jazeera’s English channel Cairo bureau chief. Producer Baher Mohamed was given three additional years in prison on a separate charge. All three have been detained since December.
The three have denied the charges, including belonging to and aiding a terrorist organisation, as Cairo has branded the Muslim Brotherhood, and of “manipulating” images to suggest “there is a civil war that threatens to bring down the [Egyptian] state”.
Twenty people are on trial in connection with the case but only nine are in custody – the three journalists, five students and a charity worker. The journalists have said they do not know the other defendants and do not understand why they were being tried together. The remaining 12, which include other foreign journalists, are being tried in absentia.
“This is a devastating verdict for the men and their families, and a dark day for media freedom in Egypt, when journalists are being locked up and branded criminals or ‘terrorists’ simply for doing their job,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International Middle East and north Africa director.
“The only reason these three men are in jail is because the Egyptian authorities don’t like what they have to say. They are prisoners of conscience and must be immediately and unconditionally released.”