Flexing His Power

Sisi and the Marriott Cell

The announcement of a guilty verdict for journalists Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste, and Baher Mohamed on terrorism charges came as a shock to the international community. It shouldn’t have.

As the New York Times wrote in their coverage of the conviction,

Less than 24 hours after Mr. Kerry’s visit, a judge on Monday convicted three journalists from Al Jazeera’s English-language network of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood to broadcast false reports. The judge sentenced each one to at least seven years in prison — all without making public any evidence and without a word from Mr. Sisi.

Sisi, the recently elected President, commented today that “we should respect judicial verdicts, and refrain from commenting on them, even if we don’t understand them.”

Many journalists have made note of the fact that the men were found guilty despite the lack of evidence presented by the prosecution. They’re looking at the situation incorrectly. I would argue though that the men were convicted precisely because of the lack of evidence.

These men were not tried in an attempt to enact justice or to take three terrorists off the streets. They were tried to make an example out of these journalists and show what many in Egypt already know: Egypt is again a dictatorship.