FRIEND OF ABDULLAH AL-SHAMY: “Congratulations, a thousand times”. 

COOPER: It’s a few days before the verdict is expected in the trial of gaoled Australian journalist Peter Greste and his Al Jazeera colleagues and there’s just been a dramatic breakthrough. An Egyptian journalist from their sister station, Al Jazeera Arabic, has been unexpectedly released. 

ABDULLAH AL-SHAMY: “I have won and everybody who is a freedom fighter either a journalist or anyone doing this work credibly and with honesty has won”.

COOPER: Gaunt but triumphant, Abdullah al-Shamy is freed after ten months and one week in gaol. He was never charged with anything. He won his freedom after a five month hunger strike, shedding a third of his body weight. The campaign to release him has been unrelenting. 

FRIEND: “Hopefully this will never happen to anyone else”.

COOPER: And now at his home we meet, as his friends and family gather to celebrate.

ABDULLAH AL-SHAMY: [Reporter, Al Jazeera Arabic] “The moment you hug your wife and any of your family, any of your friends without somebody watching your back, without somebody telling you that oh time is over, get back to your cell and you know, and your hands leave your children and all that, it’s a moment. It’s a difference though of course - you may be in prison for a month, ten months, a year or whatever but that moment it’s like being born again I think. I mean and I do believe I was born again”.

COOPER: Al-Shamy was in a different wing of the prison to the Al Jazeera English journalists, but he knew they were there. In contrast to his euphoric speech the night he was released, he’s now much more guarded. Even though he’s out of prison, he’s not out of Egypt.

“Do you think much about your other Al Jazeera colleagues also being in prison while you were in there?”

ABDULLAH AL-SHAMY: “Yeah, definitely”.

COOPER: “Yeah”.

ABDULLAH AL-SHAMY: “Yeah”.

COOPER: “That.... that’s fine, that’s enough, we’ll stop”.

ABDULLAH AL-SHAMY: “Yeah”.

COOPER: Producer Baher Mohammed, bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy and reporter Peter Greste have spent 6 months in prison. How is it that journalists who were simply doing their jobs for their broadcaster, Al Jazeera English, found themselves here?
COOPER: [to brother Mike Greste at hotel] So are you getting a bit sick of this place now? This is home for you, right?

MIKE GRESTE: Well, it is... it’s a home away from home, yeah, but ah.....

In hotel room across Cairo, Peter Greste’s brother Mike is hoping Monday’s verdict will bring good news for his family. Since his older brother was arrested six months ago, he’s been living out of a suitcase, shuffling back and forth between Australia and Egypt. 

MIKE GRESTE: [brother] “We all at one stage or another have a minor breakdown and have a bit of release of the emotions and get rid of some of the frustrations and pick ourselves up just to, to go again and deal with the next problem or the next challenge we have to face to try and secure Peter’s freedom and prove his innocence”.

[Footage of Peter Greste confronted in hotel room.]

COOPER: This is how Egyptian television conveyed the interrogation of Peter Greste and his colleagues. 

TELEVISION REPORT: “I tell you what, make life easy for yourself… arrest these ‘kids’. Take them to prison and shut the door”.

COOPER: A leaked police video of the journalists confronted by authorities in their Cairo hotel room last December. There’s sinister music and bizarre lines of questioning. It led to them being dubbed the Marriot Cell. 

POLICE: “Why did they pick this place to work?”

JOURNALIST: “It could be any hotel”.

POLICE: “Yes, why a hotel? Why not a studio or apartment?”

COOPER: The military government accused them of broadcasting false news and aiding the outlawed organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood. Greste had been in Egypt for just a fortnight, filling in as holiday relief.

Week after week Mike Greste has made the trek to Tora Prison for a short and tightly controlled visit. Peter and his colleagues have shared a small cell. They pass the time as best as they can.

MIKE GRESTE: “He just maintains a fairly, very disciplined regime. They have breakfast in the morning, which they sort of take their time doing and certainly don’t rush because, you know, they’re in there for the 23 hours, so you know Pete made an interesting point that you know during the day he doesn’t lie down in his bed. You know, he lies down at night time for sleeping, but you know when it comes to the daytime he just sits on his bed or walks round the cell and just refuses to lie down lest he sort of you know slacken off. And you know when you’re in oppressive conditions in the cells like they are, then you know having a healthy mind is crucial”.

COOPER: “An hour a day exercise?”

MIKE GRESTE: “One hour a day, six days a week. On Friday they’re locked down for the whole day”.

COOPER: Almost from the day I arrived in the Middle East, I’ve been coming to this courtroom every few weeks to report on the trial of my three professional colleagues. For any journalist doing their job it’s a sobering thought. Suddenly you’re in gaol and on trial, accused of spreading false news and facing fifteen years in prison. Naturally enough Australians are interested in Peter Greste and some Egyptians are following the case of their national, producer Baher Mohammed. But day after day in the court, the dominate presence here has been their Canadian Egyptian Bureau Chief, Mohamed Fahmy. 

MOHAMED FAHMY: “Search warrants non-existent. This case is just another example of how, you know… the government is cracking down on any kind of dissent! We are political prisoners. Can I remind you that we are in a criminal court”.

COOPER: Fahmy had only been working for Al Jazeera English for two months when he was arrested. He’s determined to make sure the judge understands the weakness of the prosecution case. He’s been outspoken in court and that’s given hope to his family and fiancé. 

MOHAMED FAHMY: “Your support in this case is something that really keeps us going”.

COOPER: [to Fahmy fiancé] “It must be very difficult these past six months, how are you coping with it?”

MARWA MOHAMED: “We’re trying to be strong. It’s like a nightmare for me and for his family. Every day we’re trying to think what else to do. There is no shred of evidence in the case and we really we don’t know what to do. He loves journalism and he talks just about his job. I mean we even postponed our marriage in order for him to find a good, stable job so this is what he always wanted to do”.

COOPER: In the days leading up to the verdict, a rare moment together for the couple when Fahmy is taken to hospital for a check up on a shoulder injury. He’s excited by the news that his colleague, Abdullah al-Shamy is out. 

ABDULLAH EL SHAMY: [producer, Al-Jazeera English] “I just want to say that Peter is very strong. He wanted to speak like yesterday and he had, he wanted to get some stuff off his chest. Very, very confident and we were very happy when we heard that Aljazeera Arabic journalist was released. We were actually hugging each other and almost in tears to hear that”.

JOURNALIST: “Do you think that you’ll be next?”

ABDULLAH EL SHAMY: “We are very confident we’re going to be next. Very confident”.

MARWA MOHAMED: “For me to see someone that I know that he is innocent being treated like this or being accused of something that he didn’t do, was heartbreaking for me. It’s because I love my country and I didn’t expect.... when it came very close to me I felt it was very painful for me, it was very painful. You know like every time I think okay what if I couldn’t help Mohamed, who else will help him? I mean he doesn’t have an option. He doesn’t have someone to deliver his voice or message to others. So yeah”.

COOPER: For each family it’s been a gruelling six months. 

[TO BROTHER] “How are your parents?”

MIKE GRESTE: “Very tired...... exhausted. Yeah they’re only just hanging in there”.

LOIS GRESTE: “It’s been a rollercoaster ride that’s been one of the hardest things. You know, hopeful one minute and terribly concerning and worrying and.... when we heard some not so good news”.

COOPER: On the other side of the world, Lois and Juris Greste anxiously await the news from Mike in Cairo and try to keep themselves busy. The family holiday farm in the hills of the Lockyer Valley just outside of Brisbane, is full of memories of Peter and his brothers. 

LOIS GRESTE: “This is a house that we built when the boys were ten, thirteen and sixteen”.

JURIS GRESTE: “So it was good times and working our guts out during the height of the summer and then going skinny dipping in the creek down in the valley”.

LOIS GRESTE: “There’s a few things that have been really important for Peter here. He had his 21st birthday party here. We had 45 people arrive on a very wet, hot summer’s night. It was pouring with rain and they all slept over for the night in the loft”.

COOPER: The Greste’s have held countless media conferences, made hundreds of phone calls and sent thousands of emails since Peter and his colleagues were arrested. 

LOIS GRESTE: “We’ve lost our whole lives this past six months in a sense - the whole family has. We’ve all concentrated on getting Peter out and resolving this whole thing and we’ve had to put our lives aside”.

JURIS GRESTE: “The hardest thing for me to get my mind around was when we finally learnt of what the so-called charges or allegations were. You know fabricating news, aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation, you know when he’s done so much kind of, you might say charity work, on all the stories that he’s done around Africa, there’s always such dire need and want and whenever possible Peter’s gone out of his way to help people and support people and there of a sudden he’s accused of basically being in league with a terrorist group. I mean you know that to me still kind of resonates and almost blows my mind and that’s why I have to work so hard to contain my anger you know that someone should think of Peter that way”.

COOPER: It came as no surprise to his parents that Peter decided to pursue a career as a foreign correspondent. 

LOIS GRESTE: “He always was a child who’s asked a lot of questions. He was always a good story writer”.

JURIS GRESTE: “Yeah, yeah he was always a good story writer, yes”.

COOPER: His first overseas job for the BBC was in Afghanistan in 1995. 

JURIS GRESTE: “When we learnt that he was hearing for Kabul, you know at the time, you know, heaven forbid couldn’t you kind of organise something a little bit easier and less risky! But there it was and you know we were pleased to support him”.

COOPER: It’s not the first time Peter’s job has caused stress and worry for his parents. In 2005 he was in Somalia with his friend and BBC colleague, Kate Peyton, when she was shot and killed.

LOIS GRESTE: “When Kate was killed it was a terrible time. We turned the radio on one morning and heard that a BBC journalist had been killed in Mogadishu and we knew that Peter had gone in the day before, so it was… that wasn’t pleasant”.

JURIS GRESTE: “It doesn’t really hit you how vulnerable you are, until it either happens to you or sadly, you know the person standing next to you. And because they were almost literally next to each other, you know it hit Peter figuratively - had that bullet strayed you know, only that much it could have been his life”.

COOPER: Despite the loss of his colleague, Peter Greste persevered with his work. He continued covering the world’s trouble spots and that beat would eventually lead him to Egypt and the upheaval surrounding the Arab Spring. 

The truth is that Greste and his colleagues are minor players in a major diplomatic rift. What’s really driving their case is a political dispute between Egypt and Qata, a dispute exacerbated by Egypt’s three years of turmoil. After the removal of the long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011, the people were suddenly free to express themselves and they relished the chance. 

Soon the new president, Islamist Mohammed Morsi was as hated as the old one and by June last year, Egyptians led by secular protestors, returned to the streets. The army staged a military coup and later branded the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.

The crackdown was absolute. In August, 600 Brotherhood supporters were slaughtered in the streets. Dissent became illegal. Brotherhood leaders were arrested or fled into exile – many of them ending up on Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based. 
In the oil-rich Gulf state, prominent Egypt Islamists have long found a platform on the sympathetic Al Jazeera Arabic news channels. The network is funded by Qatar’s ruling family who supported the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt. Arab states believe Qatar is trying to spread the Islamist message in the region.

Al Jazeera English promotes itself as a separate entity - fair, balanced but enterprising journalism. 

AL ANSTEY: [managing director, Al Jazeera English] “There are differences between the different channels of Al Jazeera because the demographic - the people that the different channels broadcast to - are by nature different. But what stays the same? The integrity of the journalism, the factual based journalism that we do, the challenge that we mete out to all the different sides and participants in a story. That doesn’t change”.

COOPER: Al Jazeera’s managers were stunned by the flimsy evidence in this case. Pictures from the wrong channels like Greste reporting in Somalia for the BBC, family holiday snaps and even music videos were shown in the court. 

JURIS GRESTE: “I couldn’t believe that this was serious. I truly couldn’t believe that this was real, actual footage. It just seemed so bizarre the way that whole segment was put together. You know it just blew our minds. It was so obvious it was a set up”.

AL ANSTEY: “There’s only one rightful outcome in this verdict and that is to throw this case out. Not one of the charges has stood up to scrutiny. The allegations made against the guys, made against Al Jazeera, are in so many respects quite absurd”.

COOPER: There are many layers of complexity in Egypt’s legal system and precious little transparency so in trying to find out what’s really driving this case over the past six months, one lawyer I’ve been in touch with has been able to shed some light on what’s going on. I’m going to go and see him now.

Farag Fathy Farag was Peter Greste’s lawyer – that is until he quit after a major falling out with Al Jazeera.

“What mistakes did Al Jazeera make in defending their people here in gaol?”

FARAG FATHY FARAG: “The first mistake is, Al Jazeera is working without a license and never informed its employees that they don’t have a license”. 

COOPER: Al Jazeera English boss Al Anstey denies the allegation but acknowledges the three journalists didn’t have media permits. 

AL ANSTEY: Al Jazeera English was fully licensed to operate, that is the key fact. Some of our journalists were accredited and many other journalists operate in Egypt without accreditation. That is simply administrative”.

COOPER: The final straw for the lawyer came when Al Jazeera launched a separate legal case against Egypt, claiming $150 million in damages for the rough treatment of its journalists, the closure of its bureau, the jamming of its satellites”.

FARAG FATHY FARAG: “The dispute was instead of filing now – I don’t care if they file a law suit or not - but my request was to delay this law suit until after the verdict day, so this will not affect the defendants”.

AL ANSTEY: “That lawsuit for me is less about money and it’s more about maintaining the pressure at every level to say to the Egyptian authorities, and indeed the Egyptian legal system, that what is taking place here is not judicial, it is not right and to detain journalists, incredibly good journalists, who are simply doing the job of great journalism, for such a great period of time, is an outrage”.

JURIS GRESTE: “I do feel very positive despite the fact that at the back of our mind we are ready, as ready as anybody can be in situations like this, to have to deal with the most unexpected. In the meantime we feel very confident that Monday will produce the right outcome – even to the extent that we have bought some champagne and it’s on ice”.

COOPER: And so after 177 days behind bars and 12 often farcical court room sessions, it’s finally judgement day for Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed. They enter the holding cages looking confident, men hoping that on the evidence presented, they must be acquitted. 

Marwa Mohamed arrives exuding optimism. Mike Greste is joined by his brother Andrew, straight off a plane from Queensland. 
Despite the massive global attention trained on this courtroom in Cairo, the judge isn’t in any rush to arrive. As everyone waits, social media is buzzing internationally. The Twitter hashtag #freeAJStaff is running hot. Lois and Juris Greste are at home in Brisbane watching their Twitter feeds, waiting for the news for which they’ve worked tirelessly. 

LOIS GRESTE: [POINTING TO IMAGES ON IPAD] That’s Adel Fahmy, and that’s Fahmy’s fiancé, I think. 

“I’m feeling very anxious and nervous and on edge, you know? Yeah, the tension is right up there. I’ve sort of started to feel, oh it’s actually happening, you know it’s really sort of made me realise we are at that point now”.

COOPER: Champagne is in the fridge and their bags have been packed for an international flight to meet their son. 

LOIS GRESTE: [reading from Twitter] “The defendants all seem to be in good spirits, waving and making victory signs. Let’s hope they all get to walk free today”. “Oh, I so hope so too”.

COOPER: Judge Mohamed Shehata finally arrives. The Jazeera three huddle together. 

[verdicts are read, lawyer translates verdict for Andrew Greste]. 

ANDREW GRESTE: Seven years!? For Peter?

[courtroom erupts in shouting]

COOPER: The verdict - seven years gaol for each of them, and three more for Baher. 

LOIS GRESTE: [reading from Twitter] “Seven years for Peter Greste [UNCLEAR] and five others, six defendants present. My God. My God”.

JURIS GRESTE: “That’s crazy”.

LOIS GRESTE: “Sorry. Finish”.

JURIS GRESTE: “That’s absolutely crazy”. 

LOIS GRESTE: “Oh my God!! Oh… oh… [sobbing]

JURIS GRESTE: “I thought we were prepared for the unexpected. Oh… it’s absolutely unbelievable. It’s unbelievable. It’s unbelievable. I’ve got to take this call”.

FRIEND: “Where is she? What happened?”

LOIS GRESTE: “Seven years… God… [sobbing]

COOPER: Lois and Juris Greste had all but convinced themselves this would be Peter’s last day in gaol. The result is incomprehensible. 
Back in the court in Cairo, Mike is in despair. He’s almost trampled by photographers reacting to the shocking sentences. Mohamed Fahmy struggles as police try to drag him away. They attempt to close down all reporting but there’s time for a final word from Mike.

MIKE GRESTE: “I’m totally gutted. It’s devastating. It’s the death of democracy in Egypt”.

COOPER: Outside the court family and journalists shake their heads in disbelief.

SHAHIRA AMIN: [Journalist] “What did they do? They were journalists doing their work. We’ve seen the videos, nothing there to incriminate them and it’s just, you know they’re trying to send a message to other journalists to silence any voices of dissent”.

ANDREW GRESTE: “I’m gutted, devastated. I mean it’s difficult to come up with words to describe how I’m feeling. It definitely wasn’t something I was expecting… unbelievable”.

JOURNALIST: “Were you expecting an acquittal?”

MIKE GRESTE: “I was hoping for an acquittal. It’s difficult to have too many expectations but I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting that”.

COOPER: Controlling the media and silencing critics has been practised by every Egyptian government but the Al Sisi regime has taken repression to a new extreme level. The Al Jazeera verdicts represent a harsh warning to all journalists. Watch what you say, if you don’t want to end up in Tora Prison. 

WAFA BASSIOUNI: [Mohamed Fahmy’s mother] “Seven years he will keep in the prison, seven years… for what? Can you, one of you tell me for what? Not only picture, tell me for what?”

ADEL FAHMY: “There is no hope in the judicial system. We had hope in the judicial system, now we know there is no hope”. 

COOPER: For Marwa Mohamed tears and more to come. A few hours before, she was planning her wedding, now she’s speechless.