Australia has summoned a senior Egyptian diplomat, on Tuesday, to protest against the sentencing of an Australian reporter, who is one of the three Al Jazeera journalists jailed for seven years by an Egyptian judge.
The three journalists, including Australian, Peter Greste, all denied charges of working with the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
A spokeswoman for Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, said that the Egyptian Ambassador was currently in Cairo.
So, the Egyptian charge d’affaires, Sherif Abdelaziz Bedeir Hussein was summoned to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra so that Australia could further “express its disappointment”.
Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, however, struck a cautious tone, somewhat softening his government’s initial outrage.
“What we don’t want to do is engage in unhelpful megaphone diplomacy because that won’t do Peter Greste any good, it won’t do his two AlJazeera colleagues any good.
“What we want to do is to talk calmly and patiently and reasonably to the Egyptian government.
“We want is what’s best for the long-term interests of Egypt as well as what’s best for Peter Greste and his colleagues…my vocabulary fails to convey just how shattered we are”, Abbott told reporters in Canberra.
Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, revealed that steps were being taken to lodge a formal diplomatic request to President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi of Egypt, although they have been informed that that the President cannot consider a plea of clemency or a pardon until such time as all of the legal proceedings, including appeals, have being concluded.
Greste was sentenced along with Canadian-Egyptian national, Mohamed Fahmy, who was the Cairo bureau chief of Al Jazeera English, and Egyptian
producer, Baher Mohamed, who was given a further three year term for possession of a single bullet.
The sentence has caused outrage in Australia, with at least one senior politician going so far as to raise the possibility of levelling sanctions against Egypt’s government, something Abbott’s government has so far ruled out.
Meanwhile, Greste’s parents told a news conference in Brisbane, that the verdict was an attack on free speech everywhere and it has left them “shattered”. It is believed that they may be considering an appeal.
