Al Jazeera correspondents Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were referred by prosecution to Cairo Criminal Court Wednesday on charges of joining a terrorist group, inciting violence, and possession of unlicensed broadcast equipment, according to a prosecution press release.
The colleagues were detained on Dec. 29, after security forces broke into Greste’s hotel room and the homes of the others, according to Al Jazeera.
Greste had been held in Tora prison, and released a letter last week published by Al Jazeera, in which he described his detainment. At the time, he had not yet been formally charged, and said that his colleagues, who were accused of being Muslim Brotherhood members, were held in 24-hour solitary confinement in another facility, and were being denied necessary medical treatment.
“Our arrest and continued detention sends a clear and unequivocal message to all journalists covering Egypt, both foreign and local…The state will not tolerate hearing from the Muslim Brotherhood or any other critical voices,” he wrote.
Al Jazeera, a Qatari network, is commonly perceived to work as a mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was designated as a terrorist organization Dec. 25.
Egypt was recently ranked among the top 10 jailers of journalists in a December report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Egyptian Press Syndicate stated that at least 19 journalists were detained or arrested during clashed on the third anniversary of the January 25 Revolution Saturday.