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On Tuesday, Egyptian prosecutors submitted new evidence against the defendants in a trial of Al-Jazeera journalists, accused of having connections to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The defendants’ lawyers have disputed the new evidence, which include audio tapes as well.
In the trial’s last hearing, prosecutors aired video footage and showed random photographs which were not connected to the case. Authorities had accused the twenty defendants of having links with the Muslim Brotherhood. Three of the twenty accused are journalists who work for Qatar-based Al-Jazeera English; they’ve already spent over a 100 days in jail despite international clamour against the case.
The trial itself comes at a time when ties between Qatar and Egypt are deteriorating. Qatar is a backer of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group to which ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi belongs. On Tuesday’s session, the prosecution presented audio recordings against the journalists, who had allegedly provided video footage of pro-Morsi protests to Al-Jazeera Mubashir Misr, the network’s Egyptian channel.
Defence lawyers have complained that the audio quality of the recordings was poor and that they were incomprehensible. One of the lawyers had told the judges that “if anyone understands the content, please inform us”; a judge responded, “I can hear it from my side”. Journalists reporting on the trial also speak of poor audio quality. When the audio was played, reportedly eight defendants were seen talking amongst themselves in the caged dock section of the court. Prosecutors had also submitted photographs of maps of the area housing the United Arab Emirates embassy in Cairo, which was a site of a few pro-Morsi protests.
According to Al-Jazeera, nine of the twenty defendants are members of its staff, including the three detained Al-Jazeera English journalists Peter Greste of Australia, producer Baher Mohamed and Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy. Two other Al-Jazeera English journalists Dominic Kane and Sue Turton, along with four Egyptian engineers and producers working in Qatar, were tried in absentia.
