The retrial of Australian journalist Peter Greste, ordered by Egyptian courts overnight, opens up “more options and more possibilities” for his release, the foreign minister Julie Bishop says.
The Egyptian court of cassation upheld an appeal by Greste and his al-Jazeera colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed after the trio were found guilty of spreading false news and supporting the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood organisation in June.
“There is some cause for optimism because now Peter Greste’s appeal has been upheld, that means the conviction has been overturned,” Bishop told the Nine network early on Friday morning.
“He is now back in the position of an accused person awaiting a trial. So that opens up a whole raft of new options for Peter and his family.”
Greste and Fahmy, who is a dual Egyptian-Canadian national, have applied for deportation.
“In the past, the Egyptian government has indicated that they would consider some kind of prisoner transfer agreement and they do have a new law that was introduced recently, and it does give some optimism for us that he could be transferred back to Australia under that law,” Bishop said.
“However, now that the appeal has been upheld, the conviction overturned, I think there are more possibilities, more options available to the Grestes.”
Greste’s brothers Andrew and Mike told reporters in Brisbane the family was disappointed the charges were not quashed but a retrial was “the next best result for us”.
“It’s been recognised the first trial was flawed,” Mike Greste said. “Peter in our view is completely innocent, so now the court recognises he’s now an innocent man and we start again.”
Andrew Greste said the change in status from a convict to an accused person “really does strengthen” his brother’s bid for deportation to Australia by presidential decree.
Peter Greste’s lawyer has now amended an application originally made several weeks ago.
The family was now fixing its hopes on deportation as the best chance of getting Greste home because a retrial – which would be the journalist’s next opportunity for release on bail – could be a “lengthy” process some months away.
“We’ve got to be hopeful,” Andrew said. “It’s a new decree and there’s very little understood about it. There’s very little regulation, there’s no precedent, so obviously we’re in uncharted waters there. But I’d like to think the decree was enacted to be used, so we’re going to test it out.”
The family did not know Peter’s response to news of the retrial, as no one would be allowed to speak to him until Sunday.
