Amal Clooney is representing Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Fahmy, who was sentenced to seven years in an Egyptian prison for reporting false news and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. Clooney and fellow-lawyer Mark Wassouf wrote a letter that was published in The WorldPost calling for the release of Fahmy.
These allegations are not true and were not backed by any evidence at trial. Mr. Fahmy has never supported the Brotherhood. There was no evidence presented at trial that showed that he ever fabricated a report or knowingly made a false statement. He is serving a draconian sentence for simply reporting the news.
Clooney goes on to say, “the charges themselves are a violation of the right to free expression under Egyptian and international law.” The Canadian-Egyptian Fahmy is a senior producer for Al Jazeera English in Cairo. He has previously worked for The New York Times and CNN.
Many critics consider Fahmy’s trial a sham, which featured evidence including BBC podcasts and a song by Australian artist Goyte. A Dutch journalist Rena Netjes posted on Twitter that despite never having worked for Al Jazeera, she believed she was implicated in the case by the Egyptian authorities simply because she once spoke to Fahmy in a hotel lobby.