Update | Egypt’s president Sisi ‘will not interfere’ in ruling on Al-Jazeera journalists
Egyptian prison terms for Al-Jazeera journalists spark international outcry
Newly elected Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Tuesday he would not interfere with judicial verdicts, following an international outcry over lengthy prison sentences given to three Al-Jazeera journalists a day earlier.
“We will not interfere in judicial rulings,” Sisi said in a televised speech at a military graduation ceremony in Cairo. “We must respect judicial rulings and not criticise them even if others do not understand this.”
International outrage at Egypt’s brutal crackdown on dissent intensified after three journalists for Al-Jazeera English were sentenced to up to a decade in jail for endangering Egypt’s national security in a verdict that dealt both a shocking blow to Egyptian free speech and a humiliating rebuke to American attempts to moderate the worst excesses of Egypt’s security state.
US secretary of state John Kerry said it was “chilling and draconian”, British prime minister David Cameron condemned the verdict as “completely appalling” while Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop – whose fellow countryman, Peter Greste, was one of those convicted – said that the “Australian government simply cannot understand it based on the evidence that was presented in the case”.
Australia, the Netherlands and Britain all summoned their respective Egyptian ambassadors to explain the verdict in what marked the fiercest international condemnation of Egypt’s crackdown on dissent since the murder of over 600 anti-government protesters last August.
