The Week in Quotes: Jan 1- Jan 8

Egypt Today rounds up this week’s news and milestones

By Egypt Today Staff Al Jazeera English Journalists Set for a Retrial Egypt’s Court of Cassation on January 1 accepted an appeal toward the sentencing of three Al Jazeera English journalists and has ordered a retrial. The three journalists, which include Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed and Australian journalist Peter Greste, were arrested on December 29, 2013 for reporting news that was “damaging to national security” and for working with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Although bail was not granted to the imprisoned journalists, both Canada and Australia have stated that they are working with the Egyptian government with the hope that Fahmy and Greste can be deported to their respective countries. Greste’s brothers, Mike and Andrew, told Al Jazeera English that the Egyptian court’s decision to order a retrial is a “positive step in the legal process and one step closer to justice being served.” Marwa Omara, Fahmy’s fiancée, confirmed to Daily News Egypt that the Canadian embassy is working to negotiate the deportation of Fahmy. Hope for the deportation of Fahmy and Greste saw new light when President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi approved a new law on November 13 that would allow for foreign defendants and detainees to be “transferred” to their home countries for trial. In related news, after The Guardian published a report that said Amal Clooney, who is the lawyer for Fahmy, risked arrest in Cairo based on a comment that was critical of the country’s judicial system. After several media outlets picked up the story, Clooney denied that she had been threatened by Egyptian officials. In the aftermath of the confusion, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement that called for foreign journalists to fact-check their sources before circulating such information. The Guardian correspondent Patrick Kingsley responded by saying that he had confirmed the quote before the story was published. “I would like to remind Mr. Sisi that in the war he is waging against the cancer of political Islam and its violent offspring, journalists are not enemies but allies. We expose the truth about the terrorism he is striving to defeat.” — Mohamed Fahmy in an op-ed for the New York Times. “We urge the judicial authorities to dismiss all the charges and acquit the Al-Jazeera journalists at the new trial. They are not guilty on any of the charges and, in reality, are paying the price of the regime’s persecution of media with real or imagined links to the Muslim Brotherhood. We also call on the authorities to ensure that the new trial is conducted fairly, not a sham trial as the last one was. And the journalists must be released without delay.” — Reporters Without Borders program director Lucie Morillon. “The most basic professional rules require verification of the accuracy of the news before it is published and drawn from official sources, as well as the need to disseminate any formal correction or comment in the same place and space.” — Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Badr Abdelatty said in a statement following reports that Amal Clooney was threatened with arrest. Massacre at French Satirical Newspaper Twelve people were shot dead in the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7 in what has been reported as an attack my ‘militant Islamists.’ Three masked gunmen entered the office of the magazine and opened fire indiscriminately, killing four of the publication’s cartoonists, including its editor Stephane Charbonnier. The BBC reported that witnesses claimed to have heard the gunmen proclaim, “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad” and “God is Great” (“Allahu Akbar”) during the siege. French authorities have listed three suspects in the case: Hamyd Mourad and brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi. All three are reportedly French nationals of Algerian heritage. The attack has received massive condemnation from the world’s leaders, including responses from the United States, the United Nations and Egypt. In a comment to Egypt’s state news agency MENA, Al-Azhar said the it condemns the “criminal attack” and remarked that “Islam denounces any violence.” Social media has seen an outcry of disapproval and solidarity for those slain and injured in the attack. An image that reads “Je Suis Charlie Hebdo” (“I am Charlie Hebdo”) began circulating Facebook and Twitter shortly after news of the attack broke. This was not the first time the magazine has come under fire for its caricature of politics and society. In November 2011, the office was firebombed a day after it printed a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. “Terrorism is an international phenomenon that should be confronted and eradicated through joint international efforts.” – President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in a letter addressed to French President Francois Hollande. "On behalf of all Egyptian journalists we present our condolences to all the victims' families in that horrifying attack. […] Those attackers cannot belong to any religion, especially Islam. They are only savage killers.” — The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate said in a statement following the attack.

Milestones Historic, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi visits Cairo’s Abbasiya Cathedral for Christmas mass in an unannounced visit on January 6. Al-Sisi became the first Egyptian president to attend Coptic Christmas mass. Discovered, archaeologists the tomb of Queen Khentakawess III in Abu-Sir, southwest of Cairo. Queen Khentakawess III is thought to be the wife or mother of Pharaoh Neferefre. History, adventurer Omar Samra becomes the first Egyptian to ski to the South Pole. The challenge is part of Samra’s goal of completing the Adventurers Grand Slam, which will see him ski to the North Pole on his next adventure.