Al Jazeera’s journalist is a ‘disgrace,’ according to the network, who has been sentenced to 15 years in prison

“This penalty is not against me; it is against Al Jazeera Network, press freedom, and Egyptian journalists,” Taha Hussein told Al Jazeera, calling it a “shameful” attack on press freedom.

“The Network asserts that the Cairo Criminal Court’s ruling is yet another shame for Egypt’s law and judiciary system, and that the decision has no legal foundation,” Al Jazeera stated in a statement.

Hisham Abdel Aziz, Bahaa El-Din Ibrahim, Ahmed Al-Najdi, and Rabie Al-Sheikh, four Al Jazeera journalists, are now arrested in Egypt without prosecution.

The Cairo Criminal Court extended Abdel Aziz and Ibrahim’s incarceration for another 45 days pending inquiry at the end of March.

Despite exceeding the maximum amount of pre-trial incarceration allowed by law, Abdel Aziz has spent more than 1,000 days in custody on remand.

After arriving in Cairo airport on a trip to see his family in August of last year, Al-Sheikh was arrested and charged with “spreading false news.”

Egypt is the world’s third worst jailer of journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 25 journalists have been detained in Egypt as a result of their work.

According to the Arab Observatory for Media Freedom, there are 70 journalists imprisoned in Egypt.

According to Al Jazeera, Taha Hussein’s conviction is part of Egypt’s “ongoing campaign waged by Egyptian authorities against Al Jazeera and its journalists.”

Cairo began cracking down on media outlets following the 2013 coup in Egypt, with a particular focus on Qatar-based Al Jazeera, which closed its operations in Egypt in June 2014.

Aboul Fotouh was sentenced to 15 years in prison by an Egyptian criminal court last weekend, accusing him of “spreading fake news” and “incitement against state institutions.”

After returning to Egypt from London, where he had criticised coup leader Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Aboul Fotouh was jailed in February 2018.