Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
Al-Jazeera
... 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, who denied links with the blacklisted Moslem Brüderbund in a trial that has sparked international condemnation.
The journalists, who have spent nearly 100 days in jail since their arrest, are charged with spreading false news and supporting the Islamist movement of deposed 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...
"Please, get us out of jail, we are tired. We've been suffering in prison," Mohammed Fadel Fahmy, the Cairo bureau chief of Al-Jazeera English, told the judges.
He and his seven co-defendants, dressed in white prison uniforms, were briefly allowed out of the caged dock to address the court, in what Fahmy's lawyer, Khaled Abu Bakr, described as "an unprecedented move in the history of Egypt's criminal courts".
The trial, in which 20 defendants stand accused, has sparked an international outcry and fueled fears of a media crackdown by the military-installed authorities.
Australian news hound Peter Greste also pleaded to be released on bail, telling the judges "we only desire at this point to continue to fight to clear our names outside prison".
"We would like to emphasize that we are more than willing to accept any conditions that you impose on us," he added.
Producer Baher Mohammed said he wanted to be with his wife during her pregnancy.
"My wife is pregnant and she visits me in jail with the children. It is exhausting," he told the judges.
"I want to be released on bail so I can be by her side."
At the end of the session Mohammed told Agence La Belle France Presse that "we are here representing freedom of expression".
"It's not only about us."
The judges ordered that two defendants who claimed they had been tortured be examined by "independent forensic doctors".
They then adjourned the trial to April 10 without granting bail to any of the accused.
Prosecutors insist the Al-Jazeera journalists colluded with the Brotherhood, now designated a "terrorist" group, and falsely sought to portray Egypt in a state of "civil war".
Fahmy said he cannot be considered as a terrorist or a Brotherhood member as he is a "liberal man" who drinks alcohol.
Greste also denied any links with the Brotherhood, saying he and fellow tossed in the slammer
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
journalists posed no threat to Egypt.
"The idea that I have a connection with the Moslem Brüderbund is frankly preposterous," Greste told the judges, adding he had arrived in Cairo just two weeks before his arrest.
Eight defendants are in jug, and the rest are either on the run or abroad.
Greste and Canadian-Egyptian Fahmy were tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
on December 29 in a Cairo hotel suite they used as a bureau after their offices were raided by police.
Before the proceedings began, Greste's brother Mike said the award-winning journalist was "strong... but 100 days in prison must have left its effect on him".
Defence lawyer Mokhles El-Salhy said his clients had been doing their "job professionally and objectively" when they were arrested.
"They were covering violent festivities between protesters and security forces, as were all other channels. They didn't make it up or fabricate it," he told AFP.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged the authorities to release the journalists and respect freedom of expression.
"The authorities must stop invoking the fight against terrorism in order to persecute dissident journalists," RSF's Lucie Morillon said.
The trial of the journalists from the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera network comes against the backdrop of strained ties between Cairo and Doha since the army ousted Morsi in July.
Qatar was a close ally of Morsi's government and the Brotherhood, and Egypt accuses the gas-rich Gulf state of backing the Islamist movement, including through Al-Jazeera.
The authorities banned the pan-Arab broadcaster's Egyptian channel after Morsi's removal.
Monday's hearing comes a day after Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim accused an Al-Jazeera editor of helping to leak classified intelligence documents, in a separate espionage trial involving Morsi.
The minister charged that Amin El-Serafi, secretary to Morsi, leaked the documents to Ibrahim Mohammed Hilal, who he said was Al-Jazeera's news editor and also a Brotherhood member.
Hilal allegedly facilitated a meeting between a Paleostinian go-between, a Qatari official and an operative with an unspecified intelligence agancy.