Egypt court set to rule in Jazeera reporters' trial

An Egyptian court is set to rule on Saturday in the retrial of three journalists with Al Jazeera television's English-language news channel whose two-year ordeal has sparked a global campaign for their release.
Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, along with the since-deported Australian Peter Greste, were accused of supporting the Brotherhood in their coverage for the Qatari-owned broadcaster.
"I just want to go home today," Mohamed told reporters in the courtroom as he waited for the session to begin.
"It is all about freedom of speech and professional journalism," he said.
In June 2014, the journalists were sentenced to seven years in prison.
Mohamed was given an additional three years after police found a bullet at his home that he had picked up covering protest clashes.
But an appeals court overturned the verdict, finding that the prosecution's evidence was scant.
It ordered a retrial, whose verdict has already been twice postponed in recent weeks.
Greste is being tried in absentia.
"Eyes of world on Egypt today - opportunity for Egyptian justice system to deliver justice for #FreeAJStaff," he wrote on Twitter.
Fahmy, who dropped his Egyptian citizenship in hopes of being deported as Greste was early this year, said he looked forward to finally seeing justice and winning an acquittal.
"From day one it's a politicised trial. If justice is to be served we should be acquitted as impartial journalists," said Fahmy, who formerly worked for CNN, on the eve of the session.
His lawyer, the London-based Amal Clooney, was in court on Saturday. She is later due to meet government officials to press for his deportation and pardon, said Fahmy, who has been barred from leaving the country.
The court may decide to punish the defendants for working for an unlicensed channel, after Cairo pulled Al Jazeera's permit following Mursi's overthrow.
But Fahmy says they discovered that the broadcaster was unlicensed during their trial, when a prosecutor presented evidence to that effect.
Washington and the United Nations had called for their release, and their trial was seen as damaging to the country's international standing.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 18 reporters are imprisoned in Egypt.

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