Al Jazeera presenter gets 15 year sentence in Egypt
A criminal court in Cairo yesterday sentenced in absentia Ahmed Mansour, a presenter on Al Jazeera Arabic to 15 years in jail on charges of torturing a lawyer in Tahrir Square during the January 25 uprising in 2011.
Mansour, who is based in Qatar, described the sentence a “corrupt decision” issued by a “corrupt judiciary”.
“A lot of people asked me to respond to the sentence. I would like to say to all people that I will not comment on a corrupt decision issued by a corrupt judiciary and criminal regime,” he wrote on his Facebook page yesterday.
He denied the charges saying there was no single evidence against him and he was not at Tahrir Square at the time and place mentioned in the charge. “I have been accused for things which I never saw or did,” he added.
Al Jazeera denied the charge against Mansour, which it said, followed the sentencing of several other Al Jazeera journalists, including Baher Mohamed, Peter Greste and Mohamed Fahmy, in June.
“This unjust ruling along with false accusations and criminal charges is further evidence of the attempt to silence journalists, tarnish their reputations and disrupt their work,” an Al Jazeera spokesman said yesterday.
Australian Peter Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were convicted on June 23 after being accused of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood.
Greste and Fahmy received seven-year terms, while Mohamed was sentenced to 10 years. Eleven defendants tried in absentia, including one Dutch and two British journalists, were given 10-year sentences. [The Peninsula]
