An Al Jazeera cameraman who has been in detention in Egypt
has been acquitted along with 61 other defendants, the channel's lawyer has
said.
The lawyer said on Sunday that Mohamed Badr was not held on
any other charges and should be released, although that must be ordered by the
court.
Badr had been held since July accused of involvement in
rioting in Ramses Square, Cairo, during protests against the army's removal of
the former president, Mohamed Morsi, from power.
Al Jazeera repeatedly denied the accusations and called for
his release since he was arrested.
His acquittal comes days after the United Nations expressed
concern about the "increasingly severe clampdown and physical attacks"
on journalists in Egypt.
In a statement released on Friday, the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights said the clampdown on the media by Egyptian authorities was
hampering the ability of journalists to operate freely.
"In recent months, there have been numerous reports of
harassment, detention and prosecution of national and international journalists
as well as violent attacks, including several that led to injuries to reporters
trying to cover last weekend’s third anniversary of the Egyptian
revolution," said Rupert Colville, the commissioner's spokesman.
Prisoners' rights
The UNHCR said it was concerned about the Egyptian
Prosecutor-General's intention to bring to trial 16 local and three foreign
journalists working for Al Jazeera, on charges including "aiding a
terrorist group" and "harming the national interest"
Correspondent Peter Greste and producers Mohamed Fahmy and
Baher Mohamed have been held in custody for more than a month without charge.
Another Al Jazeera staff member, Abdullah al-Shami, has been in custody since
August.
Human rights groups say conditions for journalists in Egypt
have become difficult since former Morsi was removed by the army on July 3,
2013.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that Egypt,
Syria and Iraq had become some of the deadliest countries for journalists to
work in.
Writing from his prison cell south of Cairo, Greste said the
authorities routinely violate legally enshrined prisoners' rights, denying
visits from lawyers, keeping cells locked for 20 hours a day.
"But even that is relatively benign compared to the
conditions my colleagues are being held in," he wrote.
Source: Al Jazeera
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