Voice Of Post

Al Jazeera trial: Egypt court frees journalists on bail, A court in Egypt has ordered the release on bail of two Al Jazeera journalists being retried for allegedly aiding the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were imprisoned in June along with their Australian colleague, Peter Greste.

But their convictions for spreading false news to help a terrorist group were overturned on appeal last month.

Mr Greste was freed last week under a law allowing the deportation of foreign nationals to their home countries.

Mr Fahmy has given up his Egyptian citizenship to qualify for deportation to Canada, but Mr Mohamed has no foreign passport.

The journalists strenuously deny collaborating with the banned Muslim Brotherhood after the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi by the military in 2013. They say they were jailed simply for reporting the news.

'Worst nightmare'
Mr Fahmy and Mr Mohamed appeared in a soundproof glass cage - which allows judges to limit defendants' ability to protest or interrupt proceedings - at the start of their retrial at the Cairo Criminal Court on Thursday morning.

After a brief recess, Judge Hassan Farid adjourned proceedings until 23 February and ordered that the two men be released.The first trial of the journalists was widely condemned internationally, and the Court of Cassation ruled on 1 January the the original court had been "hasty in pronouncing its verdict".

On Monday, the deputy head of the Court of Cassation, Judge Anwar Gabry, said prosecutors had failed to present conclusive evidence that the defendants helped the Brotherhood or promoted the group.

He also said the trial had failed to investigate claims that the defendants had given testimony under duress, and as a result "the Court of Cassation is unable to show how right or wrong the verdict is".Families of the journalists worry the process may not be fairer the second time around, reports the BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo.

Mr Fahmy's relatives have described the retrial as their worst nightmare.

Canadian officials have called for his immediate release, saying there were assurances that he would be freed with Mr Greste.

"We blame the Canadian government and the Canadian embassy for not doing enough," Mr Fahmy's fiancee, Marwa Omara, told the BBC's World Update programme.

"They kept telling us: 'Don't worry. Mohamed will be released in a matter of days.' So I quit my job and packed my bags... And I was just waiting for a call from them to go to the airport and meet Mohamed there. But this call didn't happen."Mr Mohamed's wife, Jihan, said the case should have ended with Mr Greste's departure, and she hoped her husband would be released soon. She said it was unjust for him to be on trial when a colleague convicted in the case was already a free man.

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the former military chief who ousted Mr Morsi, has said he will not consider a pardon before the courts have finished their work.