Giza Criminal Court adjourned on Monday trial of 20 Al Jazeera journalists involved in the ‘Marriott cell’ case to 10 April.
The case has been nicknamed after the hotel in which the journalists from the Qatari Al Jazeera satellite TV channel were operating.
The suspects, including four foreign correspondents, face charges of inciting against the country.
The decision to postpone the trial was reached in order to screen the videos, enable relatives of the suspects to visit them, medically examine four of the suspects and submit reports over their health condition. It was also ordered to arrest the officer from Interior Ministry’s technical assistance as he did not carry out the court decision to equip the courtroom to screen the videos.
Prosecution ordered by end of December to arrest the 20 suspects, including four foreign correspondents; an Australian, two British nationals and a Dutch national. They were all accused of fabricating photos and lies and broadcasting them through Al-Jazeera channel.
According to the prosecution papers, the defendants were part of a media network “that has specialized in creating video scenes contrary to reality and airing them through Qatari AJE and US CNN to distort Egypt’s international and reputation.”
The charges are based on the government's declaration last month of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Authorities have long considered the Doha-based Al Jazeera network, which was highly acclaimed during 25 January revolution, as biased towards Islamists including deposed President Mohamed Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Al Jazeera's Cairo offices have been closed down since 3 July, after being raided by security forces in the immediate aftermath of the ouster of Morsy.
The Al Jazeera network has described the allegations against Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, who were detained in their Cairo hotel on 29 December, as “absurd, baseless and false.”
In the new politically-polarized, post-Morsy Egypt, political figures and meda reports have shown little sympathy for the journalists, often describing them as “terrorists” from the Muslim Brotherhood.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
