Egypt Sentences 3 Al-Jazeera Journalists; US Condemnation follows Unfrozen Aid

The timing couldn’t have been worse for the American administration. Only a day after US Secretary of State John Kerry became the highest ranking American official to visit Egypt since the swearing-in of its new president; and pressed President Al-Sisi on issues of democratic values and human rights, a court sentenced 3 journalists employed by Al-Jazeera’s English division to seven years in jail for “conspiring to broadcast false news in order to destabilize Egypt.” In a reaction that summed up the feeling of many throughout the world, Al-Jazeera English’s managing director said his colleagues were “guilty of defending people’s right to know what’s going on in the world.” During his visit, SecState Kerry announced that $572 million in US aid that had been frozen by Congress had now been released and transferred to Cairo and promised that 10 Apache attack helicopters were also on their way. In London, Foreign Minister Hague said the Egyptian ambassador would be called in for a diplomatic dressing-down.