Egypt court sentences 3 Al-Jazeera journalists to 7 years each on terrorism-related charges
Egypt court sentences 3 Al-Jazeera journalists to 7 years each on terrorism-related charges
CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Monday convicted three Al-Jazeera journalists and sentenced them to seven years in prison on terrorism-related charges after a trial dismissed by rights groups as a politically motivated sham. The verdict brought a landslide of international condemnation and calls for the newly elected president to intervene.
The ruling stunned the defendants and their families, many of whom had hoped their loved ones would be released because of international pressure on the case. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who a day earlier had discussed the case in a meeting with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, denounced the verdict as “chilling and draconian.”
The unprecedented trial of journalists on terror charges was tied up in the government’s fierce crackdown on Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood since the ouster last year of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi by el-Sissi, then the army chief. Further fueling accusations that the trial was politically motivated is the Egyptian government’s deep enmity with the Gulf nation Qatar, which was a close ally of Morsi and which owns the Al-Jazeera network.
The journalists, who were detained in December, say they are being prosecuted simply for doing their job and are pawns in the political rivalry. During the 5-month trial, prosecutors presented no evidence backing the charges, at times citing random video footage found with the defendants that even the judge dismissed as irrelevant. They depicted typical activity like editing as a sign of falsification.
Racial politics churn GOP Senate primary runoff in Miss. as Cochran seeks black support
JACKSON, Miss. — Race is roiling the Republican Senate runoff in Mississippi, a state with a long history of racially divided politics where the GOP is mostly white and the Democratic Party is mostly black.
National tea party groups say they are working to “ensure a free and fair election” by sending several dozen observers to precincts to watch who votes during Tuesday’s GOP contest, concerned about six-term Sen. Thad Cochran’s efforts to persuade Mississippi Democrats to cast ballots. Challenger Chris McDaniel and the tea party portray cross-party voting as dangerous and even illegal, though state law allows it.
“Thad Cochran and his establishment handlers are out trolling, begging for Democrats to cross over and vote in the Republican runoff,” Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund chairwoman Jenny Beth Martin said in announcing that her group and two others have hired an attorney to watch Tuesday’s primary.
While Cochran rarely mentions race, he readily acknowledges he’s seeking support from black and white voters.
“I think it’s important for everybody to participate,” he says. “Voting rights has been an issue of great importance in Mississippi. People have really contributed a lot of energy and effort to making sure the political process is open to everyone.”
Mormon church excommunicates attorney advocating for ordination of women into the priesthood
WASHINGTON — A human rights attorney who founded a group advocating for the ordination of women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was excommunicated Monday by an all-male panel in Northern Virginia.
The penalty, which followed a disciplinary hearing Sunday evening in Oakton, said Kate Kelly’s membership may be up for reconsideration in the future if she proves she has ceased “actions that undermine the Church.”
Experts on Mormon history say Kelly, 33, who was convicted on the charge of apostasy for her public organizing with Ordain Women, is part of a wave of some of the highest-profile excommunications in decades. The church is trying to maintain some control over its theological and social boundaries as Mormonism has become more mainstream and open to the larger culture.
“The difficulty, Sister Kelly, is not that you say you have questions or even that you believe that women should receive the priesthood. The problem is that you have persisted in an aggressive effort to persuade other Church members to your point of view and that your course of action has threatened to erode the faith of others,” read the June 23 letter to Kelly from Mark Harrison, her bishop in Oakton until she moved this month to Utah.
Among other things, Kelly was told not to “wear temple garments or contribute tithes and offerings … take the sacrament, hold a Church calling, give a talk in Church, offer a public prayer on behalf of the class or congregation in a Church meeting, or vote in the sustaining of Church officers.”
Kelly said she hopes the decision will help shed light on gender inequality within the church. “I hope there is a point where people band together and fight against silencing women,” she said.
“I’m not going to give up on the cause because … in God’s eyes, I am equal,” she added.
By wire sources