Peter Greste case: Parents of jailed Australian journalist pay 'horrendous' visit to jailed son

Updated

The parents of Australian journalist Peter Greste have described the "horrendous experience" of visiting their jailed son for the first time since he was arrested six months ago.

Last week, the Al Jazeera journalist and his colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed received lengthy prison sentences after being found guilty of spreading false news and supporting the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.

Greste's parents, Lois and Juris, left Australia for Cairo this week and have been allowed to visit their son in jail.

Mr Greste told the ABC's PM program his son had been "almost too stoic" in phone calls to the family but the seven-year sentence he received had finally sunk in.

"It was a horrendous experience," Mr Greste said.

"Had we had a small bucket between us as we were sharing hugs it might have even overflowed with tears, with tears and sobs.

"His mood is very sombre. His mood is obviously very very sombre, facing the prospect of having to end a career that anybody could have been proud of to this point."

Ms Greste says the 45-minute meeting was much shorter than anticipated, and took place in a large room around a table "like a normal conversation".

The family discussed legal options but no decisions have been made.

"Yesterday we drove out ... the prison is in desert, almost, and going through all the checks, [it was] our first experience of that. And then we had to wait for Peter," Ms Greste told PM.

"We thought we had two hours, but it ended up only 45 minutes.

"It was very emotional to start with ... and then we had to speed through all the important things. Before we knew it, time was up."

She said her son had been moved from the prison he had spent months in during his trial to a different facility, where he is in a dormitory with about 10 people.

Ms Greste said the family will get two extra visits to see the journalist in the next month due to Ramadan but usually visits are limited to once a fortnight.

Greste ancestor 'spent years in Soviet gulag'

Mr Greste said the family had been hopeful throughout the trial and were coming to terms with the fact their son may serve the full seven-year sentence.

"We know that our ancestors, the Greste ancestors, and many others, have survived that kind of distance in gulags," he said.

"A member of my family spent seven years in a Soviet gulag, and returned, and when we met them in Riga, they almost took my breath away, how sane and how still full of life they were.

"So all these things are possible. But, nevertheless, just the very thought of looking ahead is very sobering and almost depressing."

Mr Greste made a plea to the media to maintain its interest in his son's case.

"My appeal would be for people to remember that guys like Peter, at the moment, look like having to pay a very very high price to be able to learn about what is happening in difficult and challenging places around the world," he said.

Last week, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Australian Government was "shocked" by the verdict and "appalled by the severity of it".

Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, journalism, information-and-communication, egypt, australia, qld, brisbane-4000, asia

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