CAIRO
An Egyptian court on Monday handed out jail terms ranging from three to ten years each to 18 people, including four foreign Al Jazeera journalists convicted of "fabricating news," a judicial source has said.
Eleven defendants, the source said, including three foreign correspondents, were sentenced in absentia to ten years each in jail. Seven others, including Australian Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste, were sentenced to seven years each.
The same court acquitted Anas al-Beltagi, son of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed al-Beltagi, along with another defendant, of the charges against him.
The embassies of Australia, Britain and the Netherlands all sent representatives to attend Monday's court session in solidarity with their respective nationals being tried in the case.
Egyptian prosecution authorities issued an arrest warrant for the 20 defendants – who included an Australian journalist, two British journalists and a female Dutch journalist – last December.
Prosecutors had accused them of fabricating and broadcasting fake news with the intention of tarnishing Egypt's international image.
Egyptian defendants in the case, meanwhile, were accused of belonging to a terrorist organization – namely, the Muslim Brotherhood, which the army-backed government branded a "terrorist group" late last year.
Egyptian authorities have waged a wide-ranging crackdown against members of the Brotherhood, the movement from which ousted president Mohamed Morsi hails, since July of last year, when Morsi was ousted and imprisoned by the army following opposition protests.
www.aa.com.tr/en
