The family of jailed Al Jazeera correspondent Peter Greste has announced they will appeal his conviction on charges that he aided the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The BBC reports the Greste family felt they had “no option but to try to win his freedom through the criminal justice appeal system”:
“At least part of our strength comes from the understanding that this isn’t just about those wrongly convicted in our case. This is about press freedom, about freedom of speech not just in Egypt but globally,” the statement released by the Greste family on Friday said.
“Today we wish to announce we intend to appeal the verdict through the formal channels offered by the Egyptian legal system,” Mike Greste said in Brisbane. “It wasn’t a decision that was made lightly.”
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Greste and two other Al Jazeera journalists, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, were sentenced last month to seven years in jail.