Two Out, One To Go

Two of the three Al-Jazeera journalists wrongly convicted of spurious crimes by the Egyptian authorities and held for over four hundred days are free or on the brink of freedom, Peter Greste and Mohamed Fahmy, respectively. Their colleague Baher Mohamed who only has Egyptian nationality remains behind bars with a retrial looming, as far as anything ever looms in the Egyptian court system. His original sentence was for ten years, all for doing his work as a journalist reporting demonstrations. Why he is not out on bail is a mystery. Perhaps his best hope given that he cannot be deported like the other two is for him to be acquited on the retrial and that will be that. I mention all of this because not only are the latest developments positive for the two men concerned but they figure in the prologue and epilogue of my book. So the news has a particular resonance for me. Looks like there will have to a postscript to the epilogue now though . . . will it ever end?

The shot is of a small spice and dried goods shop in Al Dokki Street this afternoon.