Al Jazeera English detainees given better conditions

Three of the Al Jazeera English journalists arrested in December have been moved from a high security wing to a less secured wing in the Tora Prison complex.

Australian correspondent Peter Greste, Al Jazeera’s English-language bureau chief Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, who holds both Canadian and Egyptian citizenship, and Egyptian Baher Mohamed will now be held together in the same cell.

According to Fahmy’s Twitter feed, currently being managed by his family, the conditions that they are being held in now are “much better than before.”

Sherif Fahmy, the brother of Mohamed Fahmy, told Mada Masr that the family had submitted another request for Fahmy to see a doctor. “We are hoping that in this new facility this may be possible,” he said, “But we still don’t know.” Fahmy has yet to receive any medical attention for a shoulder injury from which he was suffering before his arrest.

Fahmy’s family visited today, taking blankets, pillows and training suits to the detainees, who can now receive vistors once a week.

They are among 20 journalists working for the Al Jazeera channels accused of being part of a media network “that specialized in creating video scenes contrary to reality and airing them through Qatari Al Jazeera English and US CNN to distort Egypt’s international reputation.”

The defendants are referred to as the “Marriott Cell,” because they rented rooms at the Marriott Hotel in the upscale district of Zamalek, allegedly using it as the base of a media center that collected and manipulated media footage to spread false information and rumors in the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood.

According to Mohamed Fahmy’s Twitter account, the men were moved because of “foreign media pressure.”

The transfer comes on the heels of an online campaign among journalists condemning the arrests. Journalists from across the world posted photos of themselves with their mouths taped shut and holding signs calling for the journalists’ release, which quickly went viral.

Sherif Fahmy said that he thought the campaign was successful because of concerns about damage to Egypt’s international reputation. He pointed as an example to comments made on Tuesday evening by Lamis al-Hadidi on her popular talk show on privately owned channel CBC. An enthusiastic supporter of the current government, she had not previously said anything supportive in relation to this case, Fahmy said.

On Sunday, a 22-minute video showing their interrogation and arrests was aired on privately owned Al Tahrir channel. The video is set to dramatic background music and lingers on equipment including laptops, external hard drives and notepads.

Fahmy described the video as “disgusting,” saying that it “proves freedom of speech in Egypt has been demolished.” He said, however, that the intended message that the state is rounding up real threats to the country was well received by the majority of Egyptians, and that the beginning of any criticism has come as a result of the international campaign.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney described the detention of journalists as “of deep concern” to the Obama administration during Tuesday’s daily press briefing.

When asked about whether figures in the administration have talked to Egyptian officials about the crackdown on the media, and specifically the arrest of Al Jazeera’s journalists, Carney’s answer referred not only to the Al Jazeera journalists but the “the targeting of Egyptian and foreign journalists and academics simply for expressing their views.”

“We have strongly urged the government to drop these charges and release those journalists and academics who have been detained,” Carney said at the press briefing. 
 


Carney suggested that these arrests and detentions violate the rights and freedoms upheld in the recently passed constitution.

“Egypt’s transition can only move forward if all Egyptians are free to express themselves peacefully, without fear of intimidation or violence,” he said.

When asked about the possibility of cutting aid to Egypt, however, Carney reiterated US concern for the violations of freedoms that both the US and the Egyptian people “hold dear.”

The conditions of other detained journalists working for Al Jazeera remain unchanged.

25-year-old Abdallah al-Shamy, who works for Al Jazeera Arabic, was arrested in August 2013 and remains in detention, and has been on hunger strike for almost two weeks. His brother, prominent photographer Mosa’ab al-Shamy, has been publicizing his brother’s letters. In the second letter, released on Monday, he wrote “The price I pay for my freedom is nothing compared to colleagues who've lost their lives or those injured.”

On the 12th day of his hunger strike at the time, he wrote, “I will continue my hunger strike. I know it might not change anything, but it's what I feel compelled to do in order to raise awareness about the importance of freedom of speech.”