Egypt's top businessman Naguib Sawiris testifies at al-Jazeera trial

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/22/egypt-sawiris-al-jazeera-journalists-trial

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The Egyptian telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris has testified in court as a character witness on behalf of a journalist with al-Jazeera English who is on trial in Cairo.

Sawiris, Egypt’s third richest person and a towering figure in the country’s media and politics, told the court on Wednesday that journalist Mohamed Fahmy had no connection to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The billionaire is a staunch opponent of the Brotherhood and was an outspoken supporter of the military’s removal of the elected Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, in July 2013.

Fahmy was arrested in December 2013 and convicted last year, along with two other journalists, Baher Mohamed and Peter Greste, on charges of aiding the Brotherhood, which has been labelled a terrorist organisation, and broadcasting “false news”.

Fahmy and Mohamed spent more than 400 days in prison until being released on bail in February. Greste was deported to Australia in January. The case is currently undergoing a retrial.

“They are not responsible for the events themselves,” Sawiris told the court, explaining that a journalist’s job is to accurately report the news.

Wearing a grey suit while standing before the judge, Hassan Farid, in the courtroom at Cairo’s Tora prison, Sawiris testified for about an hour, during which time he was interrupted by heated exchanges between a prosecutor, who objected to the line of questioning, and the journalists’ defence lawyers.

Also on Tuesday, Canada’s ambassador to Cairo issued Fahmy with a temporary Canadian passport. Fahmy said his previous passport was confiscated following his arrest in 2013, and he had been living without a government identity card since his release, preventing him from travelling safely within Egypt or getting married.

Fahmy renounced his Egyptian citizenship earlier this year expecting that he, like Greste, would be deported. But the expulsion never came and he remains on trial.

“Today is a very pivotal testimony from media mogul Naguib Sawiris,” said Fahmy. “He laid it all out for them, what it means to be a journalist.

“He put it in stone that we have nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood. We are professional journalists,” he said.

Sawiris also insisted on the distinction between al-Jazeera English, and al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr, an Arabic-language channel formerly operated by the Qatar-based network in Egypt. The Arabic content was regarded by many Egyptians as slanted in favour of Islamists and was later banned by court order.

“He made it very clear that they are very separate management, separate editorial line. Our reports, me and Baher and Peter, were very balanced, well sourced, independently sourced, nothing to with al-Jazeera Mubasher Arabic,” he said. “This is something we were very careful about.”

At the conclusion of Wednesday’s session the trial was adjourned until 28 April.