Prosecutors on Thursday asked a Cairo court to impose the maximum jail sentence of 15 years on three Al Jazeera journalists charged with "spreading false news," their alleged purpose being to help the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, The Guardian reported.

"We request that the court, without compassion or mercy, apply the maximum penalty for the abominable crimes they have committed mercy for such [people] will bring the entire society close to darkness," prosecutor Mohammed Barakat told the Cairo court.

The three journalists – Baher Mohammed, Peter Greste and Mohammed Fahmy – heard the prosecutor's statements from inside a defendants' cage in the courtroom.

The charges stem from Al Jazeera's coverage of the massive protests in Cairo last June and July, the first of which led to the military coup of then-President Mohammed Morsi, followed by anti-coup protests by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood supporters. In the latter, hundreds of demonstrators were killed by the Egyptian police and army, Morsi was arrested and the Muslim Brotherhood declared a terrorist organization.

Apparently referring to a prosecution "charge" that the journalists' coverage had described the overthrow of Morsi as a coup, Fahmy said from the defendants' cage, "This is not about calling it a coup or not ... this is about a free press, democracy. They don't believe in a free press."

The journalists' attorneys called the case a show trial, telling the court that the state had not produced any Al Jazeera coverage that posed a threat to Egypt's national security.

During the court session, prosecutors accused the defendants of "selective filming" of an anti-Morsi protest in Tahrir Square a few days before the coup, and of reporting on sexual assaults during the protests for the purpose of casting Egypt in a bad light.

A fourth Al Jazeera journalist, Abdullah Elshamy, has been in Egyptian prison without charges since August, and is on a hunger strike.

Another 16 Egyptians are on trial with the journalists. They are accused of being members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and of aiding Al Jazeera in the "spreading of false news."

The prosecution asked that each of them be sentenced to 25 years in prison.