Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat has referred 20 defendants, including an Australian, a Briton and a Dutch national, to the Cairo Criminal Court on charges of establishing a media network in a hotel to broadcast “false news” via the Al Jazeera channel in a case known as the “Marriott Cell.”
Investigations revealed that the defendants stayed in a hotel suite and equipped it with transmission units to compile and broadcast what prosecutors have called “false information” about a “civil war” in Egypt.
A committee of the Radio and Television Union and Interior Ministry forensic experts found out that the material contained re-edited video clips of what prosecutors are calling “false scenes” that were allegedly a threat to national security.
Barakat ordered the detention of eight defendants and the arrest of the other fugitives pending investigation.
The accused denied the charges, saying they were filming real events that occurred on the streets without falsification.
Concerning notes that had been found during investigations allegedly containing Morsy’s trial date and how to deal with the police in the street, the defendants said they had written down notes as reminders to cover the news just like all Egyptian journalists who carry notebooks with remarks.
Regarding the tear gas protectors, they said they took them from their colleagues in Egyptian newspapers to use while covering events.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
