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Al-Jazeera English Journalists To Get Retrial In Egypt

Australian journalist Peter Greste (left) of Al-Jazeera news channel and his colleagues, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy (center) and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, listen to the verdict inside the defendants' cage during their trial for allegedly supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.
Khaled Desouki
/
AFP/Getty Images
Australian journalist Peter Greste (left) of Al-Jazeera news channel and his colleagues, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy (center) and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, listen to the verdict inside the defendants' cage during their trial for allegedly supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt says that it will retry two journalists working for Al-Jazeera English who have been jailed for more than a year on charges of "giving a platform" to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The announcement of the new trial, set to begin on Feb. 12, comes days after the journalists' colleague, Australian Peter Greste, was suddenly released and deported.

Following Greste's release on Feb. 1, Mohamed Fahmy, a dual citizen of Canada and Egypt, and Baher Mohamed remained in detention. The trio were arrested in December 2013 and convicted in June.

The three had been charged with "spreading false news," and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood of former Prime Minister Mohammed Morsi. Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years and Mohamed was given an additional three years on weapons charges.

Outside of Egypt, the convictions were widely viewed as a sham.

The Associated Press reports that:

"Canada's now-former Foreign Minister John Baird said earlier this month, just prior to his recent resignation, that ... Fahmy could be imminently released after renouncing his Egyptian nationality."

"It was not immediately clear how the retrial would affect that process."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Scott Neuman is a reporter and editor, working mainly on breaking news for NPR's digital and radio platforms.