Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation

Peter Greste retrial order opens up 'more options' for his release

This article is more than 9 years old

Julie Bishop says there is ‘cause for optimism’ after Egyptian court upholds appeal of Australian journalist Greste and his al-Jazeera colleagues

The retrial of Australian journalist Peter Greste, ordered by Egyptian courts overnight, opens up “more options and more possibilities” for his release, the foreign minister Julie Bishop says.

The Egyptian court of cassation upheld an appeal by Greste and his al-Jazeera colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed after the trio were found guilty of spreading false news and supporting the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood organisation in June.

“There is some cause for optimism because now Peter Greste’s appeal has been upheld, that means the conviction has been overturned,” Bishop told the Nine network early on Friday morning.

“He is now back in the position of an accused person awaiting a trial. So that opens up a whole raft of new options for Peter and his family.”

Greste and Fahmy, who is a dual Egyptian-Canadian national, have applied for deportation.

“In the past, the Egyptian government has indicated that they would consider some kind of prisoner transfer agreement and they do have a new law that was introduced recently, and it does give some optimism for us that he could be transferred back to Australia under that law,” Bishop said.

“However, now that the appeal has been upheld, the conviction overturned, I think there are more possibilities, more options available to the Grestes.”

Greste’s brothers Andrew and Mike told reporters in Brisbane the family was disappointed the charges were not quashed but a retrial was “the next best result for us”.

“It’s been recognised the first trial was flawed,” Mike Greste said. “Peter in our view is completely innocent, so now the court recognises he’s now an innocent man and we start again.”

Andrew Greste said the change in status from a convict to an accused person “really does strengthen” his brother’s bid for deportation to Australia by presidential decree.

Peter Greste’s lawyer has now amended an application originally made several weeks ago.

The family was now fixing its hopes on deportation as the best chance of getting Greste home because a retrial – which would be the journalist’s next opportunity for release on bail – could be a “lengthy” process some months away.

“We’ve got to be hopeful,” Andrew said. “It’s a new decree and there’s very little understood about it. There’s very little regulation, there’s no precedent, so obviously we’re in uncharted waters there. But I’d like to think the decree was enacted to be used, so we’re going to test it out.”

The family did not know Peter’s response to news of the retrial, as no one would be allowed to speak to him until Sunday.

“I’m assuming the grapevine has probably run pretty well and he knows the outcome of the decision but as to a reaction from him, we don’t [know],” Andrew said.

Bishop dismissed calls from the Australian-born human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson for the Australian government to “shirt-front” president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi over Greste’s release.

“I think the course of action that he is suggesting would have been highly counterproductive,” she said. “Is he suggesting that if an Egyptian national were before a British court, he would be shirt-fronting British judges? I think not.

“If this were an Egyptian national facing controversial charges in a court in Australia, we wouldn’t be in a position to interfere with the independence of the Australian judiciary. Well, President al-Sisi is saying that the same applies in Egypt,” Bishop said.

Robertson said Greste’s best hope of release lay with a political solution rather than a judicial one.

“This is a game, a cat-and-mouse game and it’s silly to pin hopes on the kinds of things that happen in Australian courts, where you have bail hearings and so forth,” Robertson told ABC radio on Friday morning.

“This will be solved only when leaders and governments in the western world that have some sway over Egypt, like America, start speaking out about the preposterous way in which Egypt is dealing with journalists who are utterly innocent.”

Robertson has raised concerns about Egyptian prosecution lawyers introducing “fabricated evidence” during Greste’s retrial, which he said could potentially turn into a “show trial”.

“It’s a cat-and-mouse game which a system can play, and it’s been very effective for the Egyptians,” Robertson said. “The stage of public condemnation may be the best way forward for Peter Greste and his innocent friends.”

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed