Amal Clooney to seek pardon for Al-jazeera journalists awaiting verdict from Egyptian court

Lawyers of Australian Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste, who was detained by Egyptian authorities last year, will fight to pardon him and his colleagues if they are again convicted of terrorism-related charges.

The news came as Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed await the Cairo Criminal Court’s final verdict on the charges of promoting terrorism through their work as journalists at the Qatari channel, spreading false information about Egypt’s national security, and supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood after the military ousted president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The trio was kept in prison for a year before they were released. A retrial was ordered soon after Egypt's Supreme Court questioned the integrity of their initial trial.

According to AAP, the announcement of the verdict, which will be delivered on August 29, was delayed for the second time in the span of four days. However, actor George Clooney's wife Amal Clooney, who is the defence lawyer of Fahmy, said the accusations of the retrial was no better as Egyptian authorities have no proof that the journalists fabricated their stories or have connections to the Brotherhood.

Mrs Clooney, along with Canada’s ambassador, has been planning to set up meetings with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to discuss what his government will do if the men are found guilty. 'We will be seeking confirmation of these meetings in the next week,' she wrote in an article published after Sunday's delay.

Clooney said that they would try to convince President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to guarantee the pardon of the journalists if any guilty verdict is announced as was previously promised, or arrange for Fahmy to be deported to Canada. 'If the court delivers another guilty verdict, the U.S., U.N. and other key international actors should urge Sisi to immediately step in,' she said.

Fahmy and Mohamed have been released on bail in Egypt, whereas Greste was deported to Australia earlier this year. Nonetheless, Greste has to return to defend himself and he cannot do that without violating the president's order. “Even though the three of us are physically out of prison, until this whole mess is over, until we are fully exonerated of all of the charges, none of us are really truly free,” he told AAP on Sunday.

The international community has vehemently criticised the Egyptian government for putting up charges against the reporters, believing that it was political motive move.

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