One Australian and two Canadian Al-Jazeera journalists on trial in Egypt directly asked the judge on Monday to release them, insisting the terrorism charges against them were preposterous, according to CBS News.
During the fourth hearing since the trial began on February 20, judge Mohammed Nagi Shehata denied the request for bail by Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed after the journalists were charged with terrorism-related offenses in Egypt, CBS News reported.
The three face terrorism-related charges based on the Egyptian authorities' accusations that they provided a platform to the Muslim Brotherhood group of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, which the government has declared a terrorist organization, according to CBS News.
The journalists defenders argue they were just doing their job as journalists, CBS News reported. Besides the three journalists, five other defendants were in court Monday, with the rest being tried in absentia.
"The idea that I could have an association with the Muslim Brotherhood is frankly preposterous," Greste told the judge, Shehata, adding that he was an award-winning journalist with years of experience and that he constitutes no threat to anybody in Egypt, adding he had been in the country only two weeks before his arrest, according to CBS News.
"I ask for acquittal," demanded Fahmy, denying accusations that he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, CBS News reported.
The three journalist were arrested on Dec. 29 in their hotel room in Cairo, from where they had been forced to work after Al-Jazeera's office was repeatedly raided after Morsi's ouster in the summer, according to CBS News. The government accuses the station of being biased to Morsi and his group, a charge the Doha-based station denies.
Among the other 17 defendants, six are employed by Al-Jazeera, according to the network, CBS reported. The rest are mostly Brotherhood supporters who were arrested separately, including the son of prominent Brotherhood leader Mohammed el-Beltagy.
A dutch journalist who had visited Fahmy in the hotel room and reports for Dutch media fled the country after she found out her name was on the list of defendants, according to CBS News.
During the hearing on Monday, the judge and lawyers were supposed to review videos that police claim show that the defendants altered footage in a way that falsified news and threatened Egypt's national security but police did not set up the equipment in the courtroom to view the evidence, CBS News reported.
The judge did not accept any requests for release or bail and ordered forensic examination of the defendants, and adjourned the session until April 10, according to CBS News.
