Three Al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt will spend at least another week in prison awaiting trial on "unsubstantiated" charges of spreading disinformation and aiding terrorists.
Australian Peter Greste, a former BBC reporter, and colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamedare are accused of helping Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood and smearing the country's reputation overseas.
The trio were arrested on 29 December at a Cairo hotel and charged with supporting a terrorist organisation and broadcasting “false news” – all charges the journalists vehemently deny.
Al-Jazeera said its journalists were simply covering the political upheaval in Egypt as any reporter would.
A court hearing yesterday fell apart after none of the four prosecution witnesses – all secret police – said they could not remember any details of the case.
Greste told reporters in court: “This is not justice. We have been three months in prison based on unsubstantiated allegations and conjecture by people who don’t seem to understand how we work, what we do, how we function.
“We are grateful at what seems to be the collapse of the prosecution case but we’re also incredibly frustrated at the ongoing stress that we and our families are having to go through.”
He added: “The problem is we haven’t seen a single shred of evidence presented in court that could possibly justify the allegations against us or our detention.”
The judge did not grant bail and set a new hearing for 31 March.
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