‘Mariott Cell’ goes to trial on Feb 20, says court

The trial of 20 Al Jazeera journalists is due to start on February 20 before the Cairo Criminal Court, according to the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA).

The journalists are accused of inciting violence against the Egyptian state and harming the nation’s reputation abroad by fabricating news items to air on the Qatari-based network.

Eight of the 20 journalists are currently in detention pending investigations, while 12 others fled the country. Four non-Egyptians are implicated in the case.

The defendants include Al Jazeera English Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy who is Egyptian-Canadian, Australian correspondent Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed.

The Egyptian defendants face charges of belonging to a terrorist organization, while foreigners were accused of forming a "media network" to fabricate news sympathetic to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, recently designated a terrorist organization by the military-backed interim government.

The so-called “Marriott Cell” case is based on investigations conducted by the National Security apparatus, which accused the journalists of renting two hotel rooms in Cairo’s Marriott Hotel and turning them into an operation center to edit videos that would portray the unrest in Egypt as a violent civil war.

Other charges levied against the Egyptian defendants include contesting the rule of law, preventing state institutions from performing their duties, threatening personal freedoms, threatening national security and threatening the public order.

The prosecution claims the foreign journalists aided their Egyptian colleagues by providing them with money, equipment and information to conduct their work.

On February 5, Fahmy, Greste and Mohamed were moved from a high security wing in the Tora prison to a lower security section. Fahmy had been detained in harsh conditions in the so-called “Scorpion” branch of the prison.

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

Fahmy’s family has submitted another request to allow the journalist to see a doctor, his brother Sherif told Mada Masr.

“We are hoping that in this new facility this may be possible,” Sherif said, “But we still don’t know.”

Fahmy has yet to receive any medical attention for a shoulder injury incurred before his arrest.

A 22-minute video depicting the arrest and interrogation of the journalists in December recently aired on the privately owned Al-Tahrir channel, provoking an uproar. Many decried the video as a violation of rights and criticized the channel for broadcasting it.

The video shows Fahmy and Greste being interrogated in their hotel room against dramatic background music.

Titled “The Marriott Cell,” the video goes on to show laptops, external hard drives, notepads and copies of the “Egyptian Freedom Story,” a book Fahmy authored following the January 25 uprising.

A voice behind the camera then asks Fahmy to count dollar bills that were in his possession, and proceeds to ask him about his activity as an Al Jazeera journalist and when he last visited Qatar.