Egypt court rejects lawsuit against Al Jazeera channel

Sunday 17-04-2016 04:30 PM

Logo of Al Jazeera channel. Photo credit: Ahram news website

CAIRO, Apr 17 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's administrative court rejected on Sunday a lawsuit accusing Qatar's Al-Jazeera television channel of "sponsoring terrorism".

The Qatari channel, which adopts the slogan of providing “the opinion and the other opinion,” has long been accused of supporting Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood group.  

The lawsuit was filed by Samir Sabry, a lawyer who has filed a number of other cases against critics of the Egyptian government. 

Egypt listed the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation in December 2013 and insists it is behind the wave of militancy which has targeted security personnel since July 2013. The group continuously denies the accusations.

 

Egypt has launched a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood group and its supporters, and shut down Al Jazeera’s Cairo bureau following the military ouster of former president Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013 amid mass protests against his rule.

Similarly, the broadcast of the Egypt-focused television channel Aljazeera Mubasher Misr, an affiliate of Al Jazeera, was suspended in September 2014.

Three Al Jazeera journalists, Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed and Peter Greste, an Australian national, were arrested in Dec. 2013 on charges of defaming Egypt and spreading false news.

Greste was released and deported in Feb. 2015 while Fahmy and Mohamed remained in jail until the issuance of a presidential decree pardoning them in September.

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