Egypt to retry Al-Jazeera journalists

Lawyers for the two journalists incarcerated in Egypt say authorities have set February 12 as the date for the pair to be retried.

In 2013, the Egyptian journalist Baher Mohamed (left in photo) and Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy (right) were sentenced, along with their Australian colleague Peter Greste, to between seven and 10 years in jail after a court ruled that they were guilty of aiding the now blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood and "producing fabricated coverage of events in Egypt."

At the original trial, authorities were unable to present any evidence that the three had provided a platform for ousted President Mohammed Morsi's party, nor substantiate claims that the group provided misleading coverage of events.

Human rights and media freedom groups condemned the judgment, charging that no concrete evidence supporting the charges had been presented to the court.

In January, an appeals court overturned the June verdict and ordered a retrial.

Fahmy has reportedly renounced his Egyptian citizenship to qualify for deportation under a ruling made by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in November.

Three Egyptian students, allegedly supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, were also jailed for seven years in the case. The students did not know the journalists until they met in the courtroom dock.

Mohamed and the three students only have Egyptian citizenship, meaning they cannot benefit from the deportation agreement.

Last week, Fahmy wrote in The New York Times that the three journalists were "pawns in a geopolitical game" between Egypt and Al-Jazeera's owner, the Gulf emirate of Qatar, which had backed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Peter Greste was released on February 1 and deported back to Australia after a decision by Sissi.

jlw/mkg (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)