‘Terrorists’ live freely in Qatar: Ex-Al Jazeera journalist

CAIRO – 22 June 2017: Many of the Qataris who were designed as “terrorists” by the U.S. and UN are living freely in Qatar so the Arab countries severed their ties with Doha, according to Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mhamed Fahmy on Thursday.

In a press conference titled “Al Jazeera on Trial” in Washington, former Al Jazeera journalist called on his former colleagues to be cautious, saying “It’s a dangerous time for the Al Jazeera’s staff and I hope none of my former colleagues have to go through what Peter Greste, Baher Mohamed, and myself went through in that terrorism-wing.”

In 2015, Fahmy along with Egyptian Journalist Baher Mohamed and Australian Peter Greste were sentenced in Egypt to three years in prison in 2015 over spreading false news and operating in Egypt without license. Fahmy and Baher were later pardoned by the president, while Greste was deported to his country ahead of the final verdict.

The Al-Jazeera Network coverage of Egypt has been repeatedly slammed by the government over backing the former ruling of the ousted President Mohamed Morsi and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group. Its offices were closed in the country and the channel was blocked.

The 43-year-old man added that he sued the channel before the gulf rift, saying “so it has nothing to do with.” Fahmy had sued Al Jazeera network before the British Columbia court over its “negligence, misrepresentation, and breach of contract,” in May 2015.

Fahmy continued that Al Jazeera has directed its staff to not refer Al Nusra front as al-Qaeda-affiliate in Syria.

He continued that Qatar-owned al Jazeera network is sponsoring groups of the outlawed Muslim brotherhood and al-Qaeda-affiliate in Syria Al Nusra.

“Al-Jazeera operates with an open budget,” he added, “Al-Jazeera is responsible for messing the reputation of citizen journalism and they should be held accountable for that.”

Fahmy added that Brotherhood members work for Al-Jazeera to “promote the radical ideas and also spread false news.”