Egypt court orders retrial for Peter Greste and Al-Jazeera colleagues

• Egyptian court orders Greste retrial
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An appeals court in Egypt took less than an hour to grant a retrial to Australian journalist Peter Greste and his Al Jazeera colleagues but the three have been forced to remain in prison until the new trial begins.

Although hopes of bail were dashed, defence lawyers say the decision of the Court of Cassation indicated the special prosecutor had found significant problems with the original criminal trial – an at-times farcical process that has been widely criticised by human rights groups and legal experts.

The three journalists have been in jail for more than a year after they were arrested on December 29, 2013 following a raid on the upmarket Marriott Hotel in Cairo from which Al Jazeera was operating.

They were found guilty of collaborating with the now banned Muslim Brotherhood group and producing false news that damaged Egypt's reputation and sentenced to between seven and 10 years in prison.

From left, jailed journalists Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and Peter Greste in a Cairo court in March 2014.Credit: AP

Mr Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed have continued to deny the charges, saying instead they were simply reporting the news during a tense time in which Egypt was undertaking a massive security crackdown on any form of protest or dissent.

In chaotic scenes outside the court, the journalists' families faced the agonising prospect that their loved ones would spend yet more time in prison fighting for justice.

Mr Greste's parents, Juris and Lois, said they had mixed emotions about the news of a retrial.

"We truly cannot believe that … Egypt wants to put themselves through this again.

"This was always on the cards," Juris said, "but even though we have learnt not to expect anything, or expect the unexpected, we did expect a little bit better than this."

While it is positive that the court found problems with the original case, Lois said "we don't have any details ... I am disappointed, I would have hoped for something a bit more than this".

The ongoing thawing of relations between Egypt and Qatar, the tiny oil-rich nation that owns Al Jazeera and has been openly supporting the Muslim Brotherhood – a group now listed as a terrorist organisation in Egypt – is seen as a positive sign for the Al Jazeera journalists.

"I hope the reconciliation efforts between Qatar and Egypt continue because the fate of my brother and his two colleagues rests on this," Adel Fahmy, Mohamed's brother, said.

"They are all professional, award-winning journalists who have nothing to do with any outlawed group … they should not be caught in the middle of this conflict between these two nations."

And while the families were disappointed the court was unable to grant the journalists bail, their lawyers were more positive about the outcome.

Mohamed Wahby, lawyer for Greste and Baher Mohamed, told Fairfax Media he expects the new trial will begin within a month and that it will be a speedy process.

"This decision means that the first court was wrong, this court corrected their mistake," he said.

"This is the best outcome we could have hoped for because if this decision wasn't made, then the original decision would have been absolute."

A spokesman for Al Jazeera English said "Baher, Peter and Mohamed have been unjustly in jail for over a year now."

"The Egyptian authorities have a simple choice – free these men quickly, or continue to string this out, all the while continuing this injustice and harming the image of their own country in the eyes of the world. They should choose the former."

The international campaign calling for the release of the journalists has continued to grow, with support coming from the White House, the Australian, UK, Latvian and Canadian Governments and more than 150 rights groups including Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told Fairfax Media: "We are currently working through the implications and options with our diplomatic representatives in Cairo".

The media were prevented from observing the appeal process, but outside the court Negad El Borai, a lawyer for Al Jazeera English's Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy, said it was significant that the special prosecutor himself had signalled major problems with the original trial.

"It was incorrect of the original court to assume that because the three worked for Al Jazeera that they were members of the Muslim Brotherhood," he said.

They were also alleged to have been members of a terrorist organisation – the Brotherhood – yet lawyers pointed out that their arrest in December 2013 preceded the listing of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation by the Egyptian authorities.

Australian ambassador Ralph King, who attended the appeal with Mr Greste's parents, said: "We had very serious concerns about the first trial, so it's very encouraging that a retrial has been ordered – we hope this trial will be fair and transparent.

"Still, we maintain that journalists never be on trial."