LONDON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Egyptian officials threatened to arrest human-rights attorney Amal Clooney after she pointed out flaws in the country's judicial system in connection to the conviction and imprisonment of three Al Jazeera journalists.
Clooney, wife of actor George Clooney, said she was threatened after she wrote a report for the International Bar Association underscoring the potential for widespread corruption in Egypt's judicial system, including the government's "wide power over judges, providing score for abuse."
"When I went to launch the report, first of all they stopped us from doing it in Cairo," Clooney said in an interview with The Guardian. "They said: 'Does the report criticize the army, the judiciary, or the government?' We said: 'Well, yes.' They said: 'Well then, you're risking arrest.'"
Clooney is part of a team defending three Al Jazeera journalists who have been jailed in Cairo for more than a year, charged with altering their news reports to support the Muslim Brotherhood. Mohamed Fahmy, whom Clooney represents, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed are accused of using Al Jazeera English to promote the Brotherhood, considered a terrorist group in Egypt. Fahmy and Greste were sentenced to seven years in prison and Mohamed to 10 years.
