Eli Lake, Columnist

The Ex-Journalist Who Says Al-Jazeera Aids Terrorists

A lawsuit based on prison interviews in Egypt claims that the network has become a "mouthpiece for Qatari intelligence."

June 23, 2017 at 4:46 PM UTC

By Eli Lake

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Mohamed Fahmy in the defendants' cage during his trial in Egypt.
Photographer: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

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Mohamed Fahmy is the last person one would expect to make the case against al-Jazeera.

In 2014, the former Cairo bureau chief for the Qatar-funded television network began a 438-day sentence in an Egyptian prison on terrorism charges and practicing unlicensed journalism. His incarceration made al-Jazeera a powerful symbol of resistance to Egypt's military dictatorship.