CAIRO—A court in Egypt sentenced a Canadian journalist and two of his colleagues to three years in prison on Saturday, the latest twist in a highly publicized case that has sparked global condemnation of the Egyptian government.

Canadian citizen Mohamed Fahmy, who served as the acting Cairo bureau chief of Al Jazeera English, was present in court along with Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed. Australian correspondent Peter Greste was deported earlier this year and convicted in absentia.

Judge Hassan Farid began his verdict by addressing, “the great Egyptian people.” He went on to say that the defendants “are not journalists” and that they were using unlicensed equipment, operating without proper permission and broadcasting material harmful to Egypt. Baher Mohamed received an additional six months in prison and a fine of 5,000 Egyptian pounds.

Fahmy’s lawyer, Amal Clooney, who had flown into Egypt the night before to attend the session, said she would be holding a series of meetings with Egyptian officials where she would ask for a pardon or deportation for her client.

“The verdict today sets a very dangerous precedent in Egypt. It sends a message that journalists can be locked up for simply doing their job. It sends a dangerous message that there are judges in Egypt who will allow their courts to become instruments of political repression and propaganda,” Clooney said. “This case has put media freedom on the line and it has also called into question the integrity of the judicial process. Any fair and independent tribunal would have found an acquittal on all charges and that’s not what happened today.”

Clooney also noted that Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has said he wished the prosecution had never been brought and that he would intervene at the end of the judicial process to grant a pardon if the journalists were convicted a second time. “This is the time to intervene in this fiasco,” she said, referring to Sisi.

Lynne Yelich, the minister of state (Foreign Affairs and Consular), released a statement early Saturday saying the decision “undermines confidence in the rule of law in Egypt,” and called for Fahmy’s “immediate return” to Canada.

“Canadian government officials have raised this case with Egyptian officials at the highest level and will continue to do so,” she said.

Three students, Sohaib Saad, Khaled Mohamed and Shadi Abdel Hamid, were also sentenced to three years in prison while two defendants, Khaled Abdel-Rahman and Nour Hassan El-Banna, were acquitted by the court.

Both Fahmy and Mohamed had been sitting amongst reporters in the courtroom before the session began. “It’s been a very tormenting 20 months for all of us and we hope today that justice is served,” Fahmy said before being ordered into the soundproof caged dock.

The journalists’ ordeal stretches back to December 2013, when Fahmy and Greste were arrested from the Marriott hotel, where they had been operating. Mohamed was arrested in a dawn police raid on his home. They were accused of belonging to or promoting the Muslim Brotherhood — which has been designated a terrorist group by the Egyptian government — and of falsifying their coverage to portray Egypt as sliding into civil war to damage the country’s reputation.

The case was widely viewed to be politicized, embroiling the journalists in a wider struggle between Egypt and Qatar, which owns the Al Jazeera network and was a strong backer of the Muslim Brotherhood during their brief time in power before being ousted by Sisi, who was the head of the armed forces at the time, following mass protests.

After a highly publicized trial that was derided by rights observers as a sham, the three journalists were sentenced in June 2014 to between seven and 10 years in prison. Egypt’s highest appeals court ordered a retrial on January 1, ruling that their conviction was based on flawed evidence and issuing a damning appraisal of the original trial.

Fahmy and Mohamed were released on bail at the first session of their retrial in mid-February after more than 400 days behind bars while Greste was deported from Egypt several days before. During the retrial, the head of a technical committee commissioned by the court to review video evidence in the case testified that none of the footage had been fabricated, a key accusation of the prosecution.

Saturday’s three-year prison sentence came as a surprise to many observers who had been cautiously optimistic given the retrial’s proceedings, the nature of the appeals court ruling and the highly publicized nature of the case. As the verdict was read out, an audible gasp rippled through the courtroom. Fahmy’s wife, Marwa Omara, immediately burst into tears while his younger brother, Adel, appeared stoic. Marwa rushed down to the front of the courtroom, weeping, and screamed at guards holding her back to let her into the cage to see her husband.

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“I never expected that Mohamed would be sent back to prison and now I’m all alone, I don’t know what to do. My life has been destroyed, Mohamed’s life has been destroyed,” she said afterwards. “All I’m asking for is justice and for what happened with Peter to happen with Mohammed,” she added, referring to the deportation of Greste this past February though a decree that allows the president to deport foreigners convicted of crimes to their home countries.

Fahmy officially renounced his Egyptian citizenship last December. He said he was pressured to do so by senior Egyptian government officials with the understanding that he would be deported.

Canadian ambassador Troy Lulashnyk, who attended the session, said after the ruling he would be following up with senior Egyptian officials to push for deportation.

“Obviously Canada is deeply disappointed in the outcome of this process,” Lulashnyk said. “We are calling for his full and immediate release and his return to Canada and this is now the time for the government to make that happen.”

Al Jazeera’s Acting Director General, Mostefa Souag, criticized the ruling. “Today’s verdict defies logic and common sense,” he said. “There is no evidence proving that our colleagues in any way fabricated news or aided and abetted terrorist organizations and at no point during the long drawn out retrial did any of the unfounded allegations stand up to scrutiny.”

Fahmy has been highly critical of Al Jazeera for its handling of the case. In May he announced he filed a lawsuit against the Qatari network for $100 million accusing them of negligence and breach of contract.

Saturday’s ruling dealt the latest blow to press freedom in Egypt. The government has been widely criticized for launching an unprecedented crackdown on journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported in June that at least 18 journalists were behind bars in Egypt, the highest tally since the watchdog group began keep records in 1990. Local human rights groups put the number of imprisoned journalists in the dozens. Among them is Mahmoud Abou Zeid, known as “Shawkan,” an independent photojournalist who has spent over two years behind bars without trial.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, a local human rights group, released a report earlier this month that concluded authorities violated journalists’ rights at least 658 times during the first year of Sisi’s presidency.

Fahmy and Mohamed can also appeal their case a second time. If successful, the case would be tried by the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest appeals court.

“You start to question the whole judicial system,” said Fahmy’s younger brother Adel. “I flew in last night expecting a good final scene to this nightmare that has run for a year and eight months and we get the complete opposite, the worst case scenario. It’s an absolute joke, I don’t know what to say.”

On his Twitter account after the verdict, Baher Mohamed wrote: “Keep shouting for us my colleagues I’m sorry. from now on will not be able to keep in touch with you #FreeAJStaff”

With files from the Associated Press

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