Julie Bishop remains “mildly optimistic” that Peter Greste will be released from jail soon, as the Australian al-Jazeera journalist marks a year in a Cairo prison.
The foreign affairs minister told ABC TV on Monday it was unlikely Greste would be released before his appeal was heard on 1 January.
On Monday Greste’s brothers, Mike and Andrew, told reporters in Brisbane they were “a bit hopeful” he would be freed, as they released a statement from their parents, who spent Christmas in Egypt with Peter.
Bishop said: “We are hopeful that on the 12-month anniversary there would be some progress, and I was mildly optimistic.”
“First January was a date that the Egyptian government was focusing upon and I have been told directly by the Egyptian foreign minister that we should expect the appeal to proceed, and that we should not expect a pardon or a clemency to come before the legal proceedings have taken their course.”
Bishop said Australia would continue to engage with the Egyptian authorities on Greste’s behalf.
“If the appeal has to proceed on 1 January then that is the earliest opportunity we will seek to get Peter Greste home,” she said.
Greste was sentenced to seven years’ jail in June on charges that he and his al-Jazeera colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were broadcasting false news and aiding the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Greste’s brothers Mike and Andrew told reporters in Brisbane they were confident about the prospects for his “very strong, very compelling” appeal filed with help of Egyptian and Australian lawyers.
They said Peter would not be present at the 1 January hearing in Egypt’s court of cassation, which would probably be closed to media and even Australian diplomats.
Andrew Greste said he feared the appeal process – which could result in charges being dropped, a retrial or the sentence standing – could be lengthy.
He said his brother was not dwelling on the injustice of his plight as “his main focus is just to get out of this an unbroken man … because he doesn’t want the system to beat him”.
The family was confident in the Australian government’s advocacy on Peter’s behalf, Andrew said.
“I know the foreign minister Julie Bishop has been particularly personally involved right from the start and they’ve felt very strongly about the injustice that’s occurred,” he said.
“I think it’s a difficult situation, very difficult for the relationship between Australia and Egypt [which], as she has stated, is not going to go anywhere until Peter’s back home.”
Mike Greste said recent signs of thawing relations between Egypt and Qatar, the home base for al-Jazeera, was a “pivotal moment in the whole process”.
“I’d like to think that it’s removed the political aspect of why Peter was arrested, which is another reason why we’d like to be a bit hopeful that we might have a just outcome on the first,” he said.
Mike said their parents, Lois and Juris, had visited Peter perhaps three times, never for more than several hours at a time, since arriving in Egypt for his birthday in early December.
This included a “fairly sombre” visit on Christmas Day. Egyptian prison regulations had discouraged the family from sending presents.
His brothers understood that Peter, anxious leading up to the appeal, had tried to distract himself by focusing on a written assignment as part of a diploma in international relations he had taken up through Griffith university while behind bars.
Mike read a statement from his parents in Cairo which said the array of worldwide support for their son, which has included demonstrations outside Egyptian embassies, was “truly humbling”.
“We are just a small cog in a massive fight for justice. We will not give up seeking his freedom until he is released,” they said.
They said the 1 January appeal was the “next available opportunity for Egyptian authorities to correct the injustice that has occurred”.
“It is important we continue the spotlight on the judicial process and ensure that it continues to be scrutinised. Justice delayed is justice denied,” they said.
Amnesty International has called for the immediate release of Greste, Fahmy and Mohamed.
“These three journalists have committed no crime. They have been wrongfully imprisoned for 365 days for simply doing their job,” Australia campaigns manager Hannah Harborow said.
“They were convicted in a trial that was widely condemned as farcical all because their reporting was seen by authorities to challenge the political narrative.
“All three are prisoners of conscience and should be immediately and unconditionally released.”
