DAKAR – Amnesty International (AI) on Monday said the continuing plight of Al Jazeera journalists, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, must not be forgotten as their colleague Peter Greste was being deported from Egypt.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
Hassiba Sahraoui, AI’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa said in a statement.
He said that AI renewed calls for the charges against all the three men to be dropped.
“The organisation has been calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all three men since their arrest in December 2013.
“The news that Peter Greste will finally be allowed to leave Egypt after over a year in prison comes as a welcome relief, but nothing can make up for his ordeal.
“’It is vital that in the celebratory fanfare surrounding his deportation the world does not forget the continuing ordeal of Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy who remain behind bars at Tora prison in Cairo,’’ Sahraoui said.
They had sought deportation under new Egyptian legislation that permits the transfer of foreign nationals to their home countries to face trial or serve their sentences in cases of the “highest interest of the state”.
However, the journalists’ arrest had caused an international outcry.
According to AI, the convictions of all the three men were overturned by the Court of Cassation on Jan. 1 on procedural grounds but they were kept in detention pending a re-trial.
Report says all of the men had been serving seven-year sentences for broadcasting “false news’’ and involvement with the banned Muslim Brotherhood. (PANA/NAN)