By Hagar al-Dosoki
CAIRO
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has said that a presidential pardon for a handful of imprisoned foreign journalists from Qatar's Al Jazeera news network was under consideration.
Al-Sisi, the former army general who won Egyptian presidential elections in May, told the France 24 news channel that the journalists – who have been in jail for almost a year – could be pardoned if the decision was made "in line with national security."
In late June, an Egyptian court handed jail terms ranging from three to ten years each to 18 people, including five foreign Al Jazeera journalists.
The five journalists were convicted of threatening Egypt's national security by allegedly producing "fabricated" news stories and footage with a view to tarnishing Egypt's image abroad.
Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste, an Australian national, and Egyptian-Canadian correspondent Mohamed Fahmi, were both sentenced to seven years behind bars. Both men are currently languishing in an Egyptian prison.
Three other foreign Aljazeera correspondents – two Britons and one Dutch national – were sentenced in absentia to ten years each.
In December of last year, security forces raided a room in Cairo's Marriott Hotel and arrested Fahmi and Greste after questioning them and confiscating their equipment.
The raid came days after the government declared the Muslim Brotherhood – the group from which ousted president Mohamed Morsi hails – a "terrorist" group, ratcheting up an already harsh crackdown on Morsi's supporters.
"Had I been in a position of authority at the time of the journalists' arrest, I would have found it best to deport them and close the case for the sake of Egypt's national security," al-Sisi said.
Earlier this month, al-Sisi issued a decree granting the president the right to extradite foreigners being prosecuted in Egypt.
The move was seen by some observers as a prelude to a possible presidential order releasing Greste and Fahmi.
A group of western governments had called for the release of Greste and Fahmi amid an international solidarity campaign launched by Al Jazeera to press for the release of its journalists.
The Egyptian government had repeatedly accused Al Jazeera of bias in favor of Morsi – which the channel denies – amid tensions with the Qatari government over Doha's criticisms of Morsi's ouster.
The local authorities frequently criticize western media coverage of events in Egypt since Morsi's overthrow.
During Thursday's interview, al-Sisi also reiterated Egypt's denial that it had taken part in a military operation in next-door Libya.
"Egypt never intervened, whether aerially or on the ground, inside Libyan territory," al-Sisi asserted.
He said Egypt had only been securing its own side of the border with the violence-wracked country, whose capital, Tripoli, was recently taken over by the Islamist "Libya Dawn" militia umbrella group.
"If we ever directly intervene in Libya, we would announce it clearly," al-Sisi said.
Al-Sisi's statement came in response to a recent report by the New York Times quoting U.S. officials that Egypt and the United Arab Emirates had staged joint airstrikes on militant targets in Libya's Benghazi.
www.aa.com.tr
