PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The decision of Egypt's top court to order a retrial masks the fact that criminal charges should never have been laid in the first place against these reporters who were just doing their job. Shame on Egypt's courts for locking them up at the outset. Shame on them for keeping these reporters behind bars. I have previously noted the excellent job that al-Jazeera has done in exposing flaws in America's criminal justice system and fighting for due process and the need to treat people brought into the system with dignity. The three reporters deserve nothing less from the Egyptian "justice" system. They should be released at once and the groundless charges should be dropped. The Egyptian government should understand that there is no shame in acting 'justly' - however late in the process it may be.
Harold Levy. Publisher the Charles Smith Blog.
STORY" "Retrial in Egypt al-Jazeera Grest, Fahy and Mohamed case," by reporter Jon Donnison, published by BBC News on January 1, 2014.
GIST: "Egypt's top court has ordered a retrial of three al-Jazeera journalists jailed on charges of spreading false news. The decision was made after the hearing in Cairo of an appeal by the three, Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, against their conviction. Prosecutors acknowledged major problems with the verdict, defence lawyers said. A new trial will occur within a month but the trio must stay in custody. Al-Jazeera called on the authorities to release its journalists quickly. The journalists deny the charges, which included collaborating with the banned Muslim Brotherhood after the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi by the military in 2013. They say they were simply reporting the news. Two of them are foreign nationals - Peter Greste, a former BBC correspondent, is Australian, and his producer colleague Mohammed Fahmy holds Egyptian and Canadian citizenship."
The entire story can be found at:
GIST: "Egypt's top court has ordered a retrial of three al-Jazeera journalists jailed on charges of spreading false news. The decision was made after the hearing in Cairo of an appeal by the three, Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, against their conviction. Prosecutors acknowledged major problems with the verdict, defence lawyers said. A new trial will occur within a month but the trio must stay in custody. Al-Jazeera called on the authorities to release its journalists quickly. The journalists deny the charges, which included collaborating with the banned Muslim Brotherhood after the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi by the military in 2013. They say they were simply reporting the news. Two of them are foreign nationals - Peter Greste, a former BBC correspondent, is Australian, and his producer colleague Mohammed Fahmy holds Egyptian and Canadian citizenship."
The entire story can be found at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
