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Egypt Al Jazeera

Egypt to release Al Jazeera journalists in 100 prisoner pardon

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

September 23, 2015 | 2 min read

The president of Egypt will release two imprisoned Al Jazeera journalists as part of a mass pardon.

Canadian Mohammed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed featured on a list of 100 prisoners pardoned by president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. The duo were imprisoned following a military coup which deposed the Muslim Brotherhood back in 2013.

The two reporters, and their Australian colleague Peter Greste who was deported in February, were charged with collaborating with the ousted government, to which they claimed they were just reporting the news.

Greste, who was sentenced to three years in absentia, at the time of the trial told ABC News: “The prosecution presented no evidence that we did anything wrong and so for us to be convicted as terrorists on no evidence at all is frankly outrageous, we have to keep fighting.”

The journalists were originally sentenced to between seven and ten years in prison. In a second trial ending in October 2014, the sentence was reduced to two years for disseminating false news.

The announcement comes after Al Jazeera stated it was to cut up to 1,000 jobs across its entire international operation.

Egypt Al Jazeera

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