... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula,as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS...
journalists accused of aiding the blacklisted Moslem Brüderbund.
Australian journalist Peter Greste and two other detained news hounds with Qatar-based Al-Jazeera English are among the accused, in a trial that has triggered international outrage amid growing fears of media restrictions in Egypt.
"We request that the court, without compassion or mercy, apply the maximum penalty for the abominable crimes they have committed ... Mercy for such (people) will bring the entire society close to darkness," prosecutor Mohammed Barakat told the court.
"Al-Jazeera is the master in the art of fraud," Barakat said as he wrapped up the prosecution's argument.
The prosecution has charged the 16 Egyptian defendants with joining the Moslem Brüderbund, which authorities have designated a "terrorist group."
The four foreign defendants in the case, including Greste, are charged with "spreading false news", collaborating and assisting the Egyptian defendants in their crimes by providing media material, editing and publishing it on the Internet and Al-Jazeera.
Nine of the 20 defendants are in detention, while others are being tried in absentia, including three foreign news hounds who are abroad.
The 16 Egyptians could be handed prison terms of 25 years, while the four foreigners could be tossed in the slammer
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
for 15 years, according to defense lawyer Ibrahim Abdel Wahab.
The trial is part of a relentless crackdown by the authorities installed by former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who won last week's presidential election, against the Moslem Brüderbund since he ousted President Mohammed Morsi
...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the
One Man, One Vote, One Timeprinciple, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator...
last July.
Retired field marshal Sisi has been the de facto ruler since Morsi, the country's first freely elected president was tossed. Sisi was elected president in a May 26-28 election with 96.91 percent of the vote, crushing his sole rival, leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi.
Since the July 3 ouster of Morsi, more than 1,400 people have been killed in a police crackdown, mostly his Islamist supporters, while more than 15,000 have been tossed in the slammer
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
. Hundreds of them have been sentenced to death sentences after speedy trials.
Greste and Mohammed Fadel Fahmy, the Cairo bureau chief of Al-Jazeera English, were jugged
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
in a hotel room in the capital on December 29 after the channel's office was raided by police.
The authorities have previously said that the accused were operating in Egypt without any valid media accreditation.
Greste and Fahmy were in a caged dock on Thursday along with seven co-defendants, including some young students who have collaborated occasionally with the network.
Greste, Fahmy and others have regularly denounced the trial as "unfair" and "political, charging that the evidence against them has been "fabricated".
"Everything about this trial is a shame... nothing about this case makes any sense," Fahmy said from the caged dock on Thursday.
"We are treated worse than rapists and killers. We are victims, we are paying a political price."
Greste and Fahmy had requested to be released on bail several times in previous sessions only to be rejected, while some co-defendants have often claimed to have been tortured in prison.
The trial comes against the backdrop of strained ties between Cairo and Doha.
Egypt's interim government, which considers Al-Jazeera as the voice of Qatar, accuses Doha of backing Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund, while Doha openly denounces the repression of the ousted president's supporters.
Several Brotherhood leaders have fled to Doha following Morsi's ouster, and some often appear on Al-Jazeera talk shows.