Sanef condemns sentencing of Al Jazeera journalists

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Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed and Peter Greste were arrested in 2013 and accused of colluding with the Brotherhood, a party that supported the ousted democratically elected president of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi. Greste, who is Australian, was sentenced in absentia after being deported earlier this year.

Sanef last year met with the Egyptian ambassador in Pretoria and handed a note of protest calling for the release of the journalists and insisting that their arrest was a violation of freedom of expression and of Egypt's commitment to media freedom in line with the African Charter of Human and People's Rights.

Sanef condemn the continuing repression of media by the military junta ruling Egypt today and call for the release of the journalists and all other detainees being held unjustly, and call on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to live up to his stated promise to reverse any conviction of the journalists through a pardon, and further call on African governments to join in this call and do all in their power to force the Egyptian rulers to live by the commitments Egypt made by being a member of the African Union and committing itself to democracy, justice and fairness.

Sanef also calls on the African Union Commission and its Chairperson, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to intervene and get the journalists and other detainees released immediately.

Journalism is not a crime.