Al Jazeera journalists' retrial begins in Cairo

CAIRO, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- A retrial of two Al Jazeera journalists began Thursday in Cairo after they were convicted of aiding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and jailed.

Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed spent 411 days in jail before a retrial was ordered last month, citing a lack of evidence in the original trial. A third convicted Al Jazeera journalist, Peter Greste, spend 400 days in prison before he was deported to his native Australia on Feb. 1 by presidential decree. The three, with seven outside Egypt, were accused of spreading "false news" as they covered the 2013 military overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi's government, and were arrested in December 2013.

Fahmy, Mohamed and Greste contended they were merely doing their jobs in reporting the events.

Fahmy, who was born in Egypt and has dual Egyptian-Canadian citizenship, was released on bail about an hour after the retrial began. He has renounced his Egyptian citizenship in hope of being deported to Canada.