To mark 300 days since the arrest of Al Jazeera journalists Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and Peter Greste, Al Jazeera will air a special 300-second montage live on TV and online today.

It will mark the key dates since the arrest and subsequent trial and sentencing. Each second will be equal to one day of the 300 the three men have spent behind bars.

Al Jazeera English will air the 300-day montage at 1800 GMT and offer it to all media outlets to stand in solidarity with the three men.

The parents of Peter Greste have once again spoken of their hope that along with Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, he will be freed.

Juris and Lois Greste told Al Jazeera that for the past 300 days, their life has been overtaken by the commitment to see that their son will be freed. “We really haven’t had another life this year. It has been campaigning from morning until night, from Friday to next Friday,” said Juris.

Both parents have visited Peter Greste in Egypt after he, along with his colleagues - Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed - were convicted in June of aiding terrorism and spreading false news that portrayed Egypt as being in a state of “civil war”. Peter Greste and Mohamed Fahmy received seven-year terms, while Baher Mohamed was sentenced to 10 years, in a case that sparked international outrage.

Juris told Al Jazeera that their son was upbeat when they visited him: “He was very strong, remaining strong really, and doing everything that he could to keep himself physically, mentally and spiritually all together. I am optimistic and I have faith in the Egypt’s highest judicial process in achieving a fair and just decision.”

The Egyptian court will convene on January 1, 2015, to see whether the appeals against their convictions are considered. The hearing will look at the process behind the original trial, a process that Al Jazeera has always stated has been flawed, and is the basis of the appeal. The network hopes the three will be set free, though a retrial could also be ordered.

Calls for the release of Al Jazeera staff have previously been made by the White House, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the European Union, the Australian government and over 150 rights groups, including Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Press Institute.

More than 200,000 people have signed petitions globally, including two signed by 150,000 people presented to the Egyptian vice-counsel in Sydney by Australia’s leading journalists.

Similarly, public calls of support for the release of the journalists have occurred throughout the social media campaign #FreeAJStaff, with more than 137,000 people who have shared their support on Twitter, reaching 112mn people,and delivering over 2bn impressions.

 

 

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