Egypt minister says pardon still possible for Al Jazeera journalists
NAIROBI – Arab Telegraph – Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi could still pardon three jailed Al Jazeera journalists who are now facing a retrial if he deems it appropriate, the country’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy, Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Australian Peter Greste were sentenced last June to seven to 10 years for spreading lies to help a “terrorist organisation” – a reference to Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Sisi said in November the issue of a presidential pardon was under discussion. Egypt’s High Court ordered a retrial of the men on Jan. 1.
Asked about a presidential pardon, Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri said: “All avenues are on the agenda in the context of the president’s constitutional and legal rights.”
“So in principle that is also an avenue that might be pursued but that is the prerogative of the head of state when he deems it necessary or appropriate to do so,” he told Reuters during a visit to the United Nations’ Africa headquarters in Nairobi.
He said the fate of the three, who include Greste, a Nairobi-based journalist who was detained on assignment in Cairo, now depended on the retrial process.
About a dozen Kenya-based journalists staged a small protest against the jailings in front of the minister in the U.N. compound, taping their mouths shut to reflect their view that Egypt was stifling free speech.
