EGYPT-JAZEERA/GRESTE Al Jazeera reporter Peter Greste fears Egyptian conviction in absentia

Record ID: 149537

  • Title: EGYPT-JAZEERA/GRESTE Al Jazeera reporter Peter Greste fears Egyptian conviction in absentia
  • Date: 29th May 2015
  • Summary: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (MAY 29, 2015)(REUTERS) AL JAZEERA REPORTER PETER GRESTE TALKING TO REPORTER BADGE ON GRESTE'S JACKET READING (English): "JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME #FREEAJSTAFF" (SOUNDBITE)(English) AL JAZEERA REPORTER PETER GRESTE SAYING: "At the last hearing the judge said that I had to appear at the next hearing on June the first or I would be formally declared as on
  • Embargoed: 13th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Australia
  • Country: Australia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAEAR9W5J4MVYP3TQFGIFUSYVPK
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Al Jazeera reporter Peter Greste, deported after spending 400 days in an Egyptian jail on charges that included aiding a terrorist group, said on Friday (May 29) that he fears he will be found guilty in absentia at a retrial that resumes in Cairo next week.
    Australian Greste and two Al Jazeera colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, were sentenced to seven to 10 years in prison last June in a case that provoked an international outcry.
    A retrial that was ordered after Egypt's highest court found procedural flaws in the initial case began in February, soon after Greste was deported to his native Australia.
    Greste said he has been represented by a lawyer at the retrial hearings but was ordered to attend in person when hearings resume on June 1 or be tried in absentia - a ruling that would mean he would be found guilty regardless of the evidence or the judgement on his fellow defendants.
    "At the last hearing the judge said that I had to appear at the next hearing on June the first or I would be formally declared as on trial in absentia and effectively that means I will automatically get a conviction if I don't appear but of course I can't go back because President Sisi deported me, so I'm stuck in this legal limbo," Greste told Reuters in Sydney.
    "Yeah it's a strange situation but the problem is this has never happened before. They've never had a prisoner or a defendant deported from the country while the trial is ongoing so there is no formal legal mechanism for the judge to take me off the case and it's this weird legal limbo that I've finding myself in. I'm hoping that if they won't take me off the case, then offering to appear by video link is the kind of solution that will be acceptable to the court," Greste added.
    He said he's not yet had a response from the court or Egyptian government.
    Earlier this month, Amnesty International said Egyptian authorities were using the courts to stifle journalism, highlighting how several reporters had been detained for long periods without charge or trial. Egypt's Foreign Ministry denied there had been any targeting of journalists.
    Egyptian authorities accuse Qatar-based Al Jazeera of being a mouthpiece of the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood - the movement Sisi removed from power in 2013.
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