Protest in Australia over jailing of scribes in Egypt

Journalists and other press freedom advocates staged a protest here against the imprisonment of three Al Jazeera journalists, including an Australian, in Egypt last month, media reported.

The protestors gathered at Melbourne's Federation Square Monday noon to stage the rally, the Melbourne Age reported.

An Egyptian court last month sentenced Australian Peter Greste, 49, and Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy to seven years in prison for "conspiring" with the Muslim Brotherhood and spreading "false" news. Their Egyptian colleague Baher Mohamed was sentenced to an additional three years for possession of ammunition.

The three journalists were arrested in December last year while working in Egypt's capital Cairo. After six months in detention, they were on June 23 found guilty of "conspiring" with the now banned Muslim Brotherhood, and for broadcasting "false" news considered "defamatory and destabilising" to Egypt.

The protestors in Melbourne were encouraged to take photos of the three journalists, displayed prominently on a big screen, and to tweet the images under the hashtag #FreeAJStaff.

The report quoting the president of the Melbourne Press Club, Michael Rowland, said the aim of the rally was to express anger and concern at the "distorted legal process and the role of the Egyptian government in sitting over this, and allowing Peter Greste and his colleagues to be sent to jail".