Cairo Trials of 3 Journalists - Farce

[Hafiz]

Greste trial

The trial of the Australian Peter Greste, 2 of his colleagues, including 1 Canadian national, together with 17 others for conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood to broadcast news by al Jazeera English that falsely portrayed Egypt is in its farcical 2nd month.

Evidence led yesterday by the prosecution includes:

That the wrong people were arrested. The authorities thought they were employed by al Jazeera Arabic (Mubasher) which is banned in Egypt. Instead they worked for al Jazeera English (which is widely regarded as a balanced and informative TV news, and is not banned in Egypt).

A Greste family photograph of his father and mother in front of his fathers old school in Germany and taken by the accused 2 years ago.

A video of Greste reporting for Fox news from Africa which had nothing to do with Egypt. It was taken from his award winning documentary on Somalia.

A press conference in Kenya about the Westgate terror attack.

Five Sky News Arabia stories filmed by Greste (?) in Cairo which is significant because Sky is not seen as partisan and the charge is only about al Jazeera,

Not a single video or photograph shown to the court was produced by Al-Jazeera English in Egypt,

The above farce follows an earlier court session in which key prosecution witnesses were unable to remember crucial aspects of their evidence and missing video evidence or projection equipment for the evidence.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/offtopic-ev ... z2yXseV9Ls

Even though the case looks weak the judge will not grant bail.

This is a high profile case so you would expect a top notch prosecutor and solid evidence. Instead it is stop-go and with evidence that all journalists covering it regard as irrelevant. So far there has been no evidence relevant to the charges.

What happens with normal trials in Egypt and where are those civil rights type who were so loud during the Morsi year. Justice out side of the limelight must be very nasty.

There are no jury trials in Egypt which contrasts with, for example authoritarian Russia and and chaotic India. This absence of juries gives a lot of power to judges in Egypt, most of whom were appointed under Mubarak, and shows scant faith in the common sense of its citizens. If ordinary Indian citizens can participate in justice no-one has a good case for saying it can't work in their backyard.

Don't get arrested in Egypt.