Egypt defended its judicial system at the United Nations on Wednesday amid a global outcry over the jailing of al Jazeera journalists, telling diplomats and reporters that it respects the role of the media and does not consider journalism a crime, according to Reuters.
Diplomats from more than 17 countries, including eight members of the U.N. Security Council, attended the meeting organized by the U.N. Correspondents Association to show solidarity with the three imprisoned Al Jazeera journalists, Reuters reported.
Australian Peter Greste; Canadian-Egyptian national Mohamed Fahmy, Cairo bureau chief of Al Jazeera English; and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed were jailed on Monday for seven years, according to Reuters. All three denied the charge of working with the now banned Muslim Brotherhood.
The United States called for the "chilling, draconian sentences" to be reversed, Reuters reported.
"The Egyptian judicial system is very well-known for providing full guarantees for the defendant," Egypt's deputy U.N. Ambassador, Osama Abdelkhalek Mahmoud, told the meeting, according to Reuters. "I have confidence that the due procedures will be followed and justice will be done in such cases and in all other cases."
"We fully subscribe to this wording you have used - journalism is not a crime," Mahmoud said, Reuters reported. "We have 1,200 foreign correspondents in Egypt working, none of them were harassed or annoyed ... We highly respect the role played by journalists."
Deputy Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Robert Mahoney, said some 67 journalists had been detained in the Egypt since the government of former Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi was toppled in July, according to Reuters.
"A lot have been let out, but today as we speak there are 14 journalists in jail in Egypt, including the three Al Jazeera journalists," Mahoney said, Reuters reported. "That makes Egypt ... the biggest jailer of journalists in the Arab world, more than Syria."
