1st LD: Egyptian court sentences Al-Jazeera journalists to 3 years in prison

An Egyptian court delivered its final verdict Saturday ordering the imprisonment for three years of the Al-Jazeera journalists who were arrested in 2013 and accused of "aiding a terrorist organization."

The journalists included Australian Peter Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed, who work for Qatar-based Al-Jazeera English TV.

Fahmy and Mohammed were in cage of the Cairo Criminal Court, but Greste was tried in absentia as he was deported to Australia earlier this year.

Mohamed also received an additional six-month jail sentence on a separate charge involving possession of weapons.

Another three other Egyptian defendants were also sentenced to three years in prison for helping the al-Jazeera journalists.

The court acquitted two other defendants.

Fahmy and Mohamed were on bail ahead of the verdict after spending more than 400 days in detention.

On Feb. 3, Fahmy renounced his Egyptian citizenship and kept the Canadian one, paving the way for his deportation.

The journalists were arrested in a security raid in a Cairo hotel room where they were operating in December 2013.

They were then accused of spreading false news and lies that harmed the national interests.

Greste and Fahmy were originally sentenced in last June to seven years, while Mohammed received a ten-year imprisonment term over charges of aiding the currently blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.

The Court of Cassation, the country's top appealing court, accepted an appeal against the sentence on Jan. 1, saying the initial trial failed to prove their links to the Muslim Brotherhood. Endit