A Cairo court has sentenced three Al-Jazeera journalists to three years in prison on charges that legal experts said were unfounded and politically motivated. Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were led away from court after the verdict Saturday. Australian Peter Greste was deported to Australia earlier this year and was tried in absentia.

The move has sparked worldwide outrage, with the European Union describing the verdict as “a setback for freedom of expression in Egypt.” In this video, Amal Clooney, lawyer for defendant Mohamed Fahmy, calls on the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, to overturn the court’s decision.

According to Al-Jazeera, “the journalists had been initially found guilty in June 2014 of aiding a ‘terrorist organization,’ a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was outlawed in Egypt after the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.” Read more here.

–Posted by Roisin Davis