Court ‘adjourns Al-Jazeera trial’

In this June 4, 2015 file photo, Canadian Al-Jazeera English journalist Mohammed Fahmy, left, and his Egyptian colleague Baher Mohammed listen in a courtroom in Tora prison in Cairo.

In this June 4, 2015 file photo, Canadian Al-Jazeera English journalist Mohammed Fahmy, left, and his Egyptian colleague Baher Mohammed listen in a courtroom in Tora prison in Cairo.

Published Jul 30, 2015

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Cairo - A Cairo court session which had been expected to deliver a verdict on Thursday in the retrial of Al-Jazeera television journalists has been adjourned, Al-Jazeera said on its Twitter feed.

“We are extremely angry that the verdict has been adjourned today,” Al-Jazeera Media Network's spokesperson tweeted on @AJENews.

The cause of the postponement was not immediately clear.

There was no official confirmation or response from Egyptian judicial authorities.

A Reuters journalist spoke to three guards outside the court building who said that there would be no hearing on Thursday, without giving a reason.

Mohamed Fahmy, a naturalised Canadian who has given up his Egyptian citizenship, and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were previously charged with aiding a terrorist organisation, a reference to the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

A third Al-Jazeera journalist, Australian Peter Greste, was deported in February.

The Brotherhood was outlawed in Egypt after the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi following mass protests against his rule in 2013.

The journalists were originally sentenced to between seven and 10 years in prison on charges including spreading lies to help a terrorist organisation, which they have denied.

Egypt's high court ordered a retrial in January.

Reuters

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