Video evidence edited by prosecution in Jazeera trial, say state TV technicians

Videos presented as evidence in the ongoing trial against detained Al Jazeera reporters were edited by the prosecution, claim three members of a technical committee from Egyptian state television who examined them.

Orla Guerin, a BBC news correspondent present at the hearing on Sunday morning, wrote on her Twitter account that defendant Mohamed Fahmy said during recess that the trial is a farce and full of loopholes. “If anyone fabricated anything it was the prosecutor,” he said, adding that one of the committee members examining the evidence was present during their arrest.

“We are political hostages. I call on Egypt's new president to recognize that we are innocent,” Fahmy urged.

According to Guerin, when asked about which videos provide evidence that the defendants are supportive of the Brotherhood, one of the technical committee members said that he couldn’t remember. Another added that he couldn’t determine whether the content of the videos is pro-Brotherhood or not.       

The case — widely known as “The Marriott Cell,” because several of the defendants were arrested from the Cairo-based hotel from which they were working — was adjourned to June 5.

It began amid heightened tension between Cairo and Qatar over the Gulf nation’s support of ousted President Mohamed Morsi and the interim Egyptian government’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Al Jazeera is a Doha-based broadcaster, funded by the House of Thani, the ruling family of Qatar.