Egypt Summons UK Ambassador Over Comments on Journalists
August 30, 2015Egypt’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday summoned the British ambassador in Cairo to protest comments he made after a judge sentenced three Al-Jazeera English journalists to three years prison, reports The Associated Press (AP).
The ministry said in a statement that ambassador John Casson’s comments were “unacceptable interference” in the country’s judiciary, and “incompatible with diplomatic norms and practices.”
In a post on Twitter, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Egypt “rejects any foreign criticism of judicial verdicts.”
The court had sentenced the Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohammed on Saturday for reporting “false news”.
The three were jailed by Egypt over their coverage of the violent crackdown on Islamist protests following the military overthrow of former President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Greste was deported to his Australia home in February, and his trial was held in absentia.
Speaking to television cameras in Arabic after the verdict, Casson said he was “shocked and concerned by the sentences,” in a case that is of “profound interest to Egyptians because it has become a symbol of the basis for stability in the new Egypt.”
“I am concerned that today’s ruling will undermine confidence in the basis of Egypt’s stability, both in Egypt and abroad,” he said, according to AP.
Several other foreign diplomats at the trial also condemned the verdict, but Casson may have been the only one to speak in Arabic to domestic television stations.
The United States, the European Union, the United Nations and human rights advocacy groups and press freedom organizations also sharply criticized it.
Casson’s comments were posted on the British Embassy’s Facebook page and met with a wave of negative reaction in Arabic and English. He also posted similar comments on Twitter, where he had nearly 28,000 followers.
The British Embassy said Casson met Hisham Seif al-Din, chief of staff to Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, at the ministry’s request on Sunday.
“Ambassador Casson explained the UK position on yesterday’s court ruling set out in statements in London and Cairo yesterday,” it said in a statement quoted by AP.
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