Egyptian court sentences 3 al Jazeera reporters to jail

Three correspondents of Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV news channel were sentenced by an Egyptian judge Monday to seven years in prison on charges of “collaborating with terrorists” to fabricate news in Egypt and harming national security. The three, who all deny the charge, are Australian Peter Greste, Al Jazeera's Kenya-based correspondent Baher Mohamed and Canadian-Egyptian national Mohamed Fahmy, Cairo bureau chief of Al Jazeera English. Mohamed received an additional three years in jail on a separate charge involving possession of ammunition.

All three journalists have been held at Egypt's notorious Tora Prison for six months, in a case that has drawn strong protests from Western governments and human rights groups. The British and Australian ambassadors both condemned the ruling as violating the democratic norms of free speech.