Al Jazeera journalists Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed found guilty in Egyptian court

Marwa Omara, wife of Al Jazeera television journalist Mohamed Fahmy, reacts after hearing the verdict at a court in Cairo, Egypt, August 29, 2015. An Egyptian court sentenced three Al Jazeera TV journalists to three years in prison on Saturday for operating without a press licence and broadcasting material harmful to Egypt, a case that has triggered an international outcry.The verdict in a retrial was issued against Mohamed Fahmy, a naturalised Canadian who has given up his Egyptian citizenship, Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian, and Peter Greste, an Australian who was deported in February. Reuters/Asmaa Waguih

Australian journalist Peter Greste, as well as his two Al Jazeera colleagues, has been found guilty in a Cairo court on Saturday. Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were sentenced to at least three years’ jail for broadcasting material harmful to Egypt and operating with no press license.

While Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to three years of imprisonment, Mohamed got six additional months for possessing one bullet.

Greste was deported to Australia in February. Fahmy, as well as Mohamed, was taken back to custody after the verdict, Reuters quoted Fahmy's wife Marwa Omara. They were released on bail in February. Fahmy earlier gave up his Egyptian passport.

Judge Hassan Farid said during the retrial that those three Al Jazeera correspondents were “not journalists and not members of the press syndicate.” According to the original trial, the three defendants were sentenced to up to 10 years’ jail. The charges against them included cooperating with Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organisation.

According to rights advocates, the arrest of the Al Jazeera journalists was a part of the Egyptian government’s mission to control free speech amid the political unrest since mid-2013 when President Mohamed Mursi was overthrown. Mursi was a senior Muslim Brotherhood leader.

Al Jazeera immediate condemned the verdict. Al Jazeera Media Network's Acting Director General Dr Mostefa Souag said the verdict was illogical. “Our colleagues Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy will now have to return to prison, and Peter Greste is sentenced in absentia,” Al Jazeera quoted Souag, “There is no evidence proving that our colleagues in any way fabricated news or aided and abetted terrorist organisations, and at no point during the long drawn out retrial did any of the unfounded allegations stand up to scrutiny.”

Greste expressed himself on Twitter after the verdict. “Shocked. Outraged. Angry. Upset. None of them convey how I feel right now,” he posted on Twitter.

Contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au, or let us know what you think below.

MEET IBT NEWS FROM BELOW CHANNELS