Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Monday convicted three journalists from Al-Jazeera English and sentenced them to seven years in prison each on terrorism-related charges, bringing widespread criticism that the verdict was a blow to freedom of expression. 
  
 FILE - In this Saturday, May 3, 2014 file photo, Canadian-Egyptian acting Al-Jazeera bureau chief Mohammed Fahmy talks to the judge in a courthouse near Tora prison along with several other defendants... (Associated Press) 
  
 FILE - In this Thursday, May 15, 2014 file photo, from left, Mohammed Fahmy, Canadian-Egyptian acting bureau chief of Al-Jazeera, Australian correspondent Peter Greste, and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed... (Associated Press) 
  
 FILE - In this May 3, 2014 file photo, Al-Jazeera's award-winning Australian correspondent Peter Greste appears in a defendants' cage in the Police Academy courthouse along with several other defendants... (Associated Press) 
  
 The three, Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohammed, have been detained since a December raid on their Cairo hotel room, which they were using as an office as they covered protests by supporters of the ousted Islamist president. The raid was part of a broad crackdown against Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood. 
  
 They had pleaded innocent, saying they were simply doing their jobs as journalists. But they were charged with supporting the Brotherhood, which has been declared a terrorist organization, and of fabricating footage to undermine Egypt's national security and make it appear the country was facing civil war. 
  
 The prosecution provided little evidence in the case, showing video footage found in their possession — most of which had nothing to do with the case, including a report on a veterinary hospital in Cairo, Christian life and old footage of Greste from previous assignments elsewhere in Africa. 
  
 "I swear they will pay for this," Fahmy, who was Al-Jazeera English's acting Cairo bureau chief, shouted angrily from the defendants' cage after the sentences were announced in the Cairo court Monday. Greste, a correspondent, raised his fists in the air. 
  
 "They just ruined a family," said Fahmy's brother Adel, who was attending the session. He said they would appeal the verdict but added that he had little faith in the system. "Everything is corrupt," he said. Greste's brother Andrew said he was "gutted" and also vowed to appeal. 
  
 Australian Foreign Minister Julia Bishop said, "We are all shocked by this verdict," adding that the government would contact newly elected Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and ask him to intervene in the case. 
  
 "The Australian government urges the new government of Egypt to reflect what message is being sent to the world," she said. "We are deeply concerned that this verdict is part of a broader attempt to muzzle media freedoms." 
  
 The three received sentences of seven years each in a maximum security prison. Mohammed, the team's producer, received an extra three years because of additional charges of possession of ammunition. Al-Jazeera has said that charge was rooted in a spent shell found in his possession — a souvenir he'd picked up from protests. 
  
 There were 17 other co-defendants in the case. Among them, two British journalists and a Dutch journalist who were not in Egypt and eight others being tried in absentia each received 10-year prison sentences. Two of them were acquitted, including the son of Mohammed el-Beltagy, a senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood. Most of the co-defendants were students, arrested separately and accused of giving footage to the journalists. 
  
 The managing director of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera English, Al Anstey, said in a statement that "not a shred of evidence was found to support the extraordinary and false charges against them." 
  
 "To have detained them for 177 days is an outrage. To have sentenced them defies logic, sense, and any semblance of justice," he said. 
  
 The arrests of the journalists were part of a broad crackdown on the Brotherhood and other Islamists who have been holding protests since the July 3 ouster of President Mohammed Morsi by el-Sissi, the head of the military at the time. Security forces have killed hundreds of Morsi supporters and arrested thousands more. 
  
 The crackdown has already raised fears of suppression of any form of dissent, since police have also arrested non-Islamist opponents, largely for breaking a draconian law passed in December banning protests without a prior police permit. 
  
 Attending the session, Canadian ambassador David Drake said there are many questions over the verdict. 
  
 "We are very disappointed," he said. "We are digesting this ... We have to put our faith in the judicial system. We don't understand this particular verdict." 
  
 British ambassador James Watt also said he was disappointed, adding, "Freedom of expression is fundamental to any democracy." 
  
 Before the verdicts, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Monday he spoke with el-Sissi over the weekend and told him that Greste was innocent. "I did make the point that as an Australian journalist, Peter Greste would not have been supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, he would have simply been reporting on the Muslim Brotherhood," Abbott told reporters in Canberra. 
  
 "The point I made was that in the long run, a free and vigorous media are good for democracy, good for security, (and) good for stability," he said. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The verdicts were "feared but expected" by relatives, reports Christian Fraser 
  
 Three al-Jazeera journalists accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood have been jailed for seven years in Egypt. 
  
 A court in Cairo convicted Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed of spreading false news and supporting the now banned Islamist group. The trio had denied the charges. 
  
 Eleven defendants tried in absentia, including three foreign journalists, received 10-year sentences. 
  
 The trial has caused an international outcry amid claims it was politicised. 
  
 Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters on Monday she was "bitterly disappointed" by the outcome. Greste, a former BBC journalist, is an Australian citizen. 
  
 British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "completely appalled" and the UK Foreign Office has summoned the Egyptian ambassador over the guilty verdicts. Two of the journalists convicted in absentia are British. 
  
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Peter Greste's parents were being filmed as they heard the news 
  
 Correspondents say evidence put forward earlier in court did nothing to support the serious charges brought. 
  
 The judge was shown photographs from Mr Greste's family holiday, a Sky Arabia report on cruelty to horses and a video of a news conference in Nairobi. 
  
 Baher Mohamed was sentenced to a further three years in jail on a separate charge involving possession of "unlicensed ammunition". 
  
 Christian Fraser, BBC News, Cairo 
  
 Peter Greste has spent six months in a 4m (13ft) cell with his two al-Jazeera colleagues, locked down for 23 hours a day with only a small window for light. The Tora prison is a "hell hole" says Greste's brother, Michael. "But he is strong and he will survive." 
  
 That resilience was on show when the prisoners came into court. They waved at friends and family and hugged each other, hoping their ordeal was now ending. 
  
 The judge, wearing sunglasses, looked unmoved by the scores of cameras there to record the verdict. Last week he sentenced 14 people to death, including the father of one of the students now standing in the cage. 
  
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop: ''I am bitterly disappointed'' 
  
 As he heard the verdict, Peter Greste punched the cage in frustration. Mohamed Fahmy screamed in defiance. "He needs surgery, he has done nothing wrong," his mother wailed. Fahmy spent the first few weeks of his detention sleeping on the floor with a dislocated shoulder. 
  
 In a statement, al-Jazeera English's managing director Al Anstey said the sentence "defies logic, sense, and any semblance of justice". 
  
 The three men are expected to appeal. 
  
 Al-Jazeera has said only nine of the 20 defendants are its employees. The others are reportedly students and activists, two of whom were acquitted in Monday's verdict. 
  
 It comes amid concerns over growing media restrictions in Egypt. 
  
 Journalists react 
  
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 Al-Jazeera verdicts: Twitter reaction 
  
 UK reporter's shock at sentence 
  
 Andrew Harding: Peter Greste represents all journalists 
  
 Peter Greste's brother Andrew said he was "surprised" by the verdict, and that he had been assured all along by the authorities that the Egyptian judiciary is independent. 
  
 Fahmy and Mohamed were among 16 Egyptians charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation and "harming national unity". 
  
 Greste and three other journalists who have left the country - British al-Jazeera reporters Dominic Kane and Sue Turton and the Dutch newspaper and radio journalist Rena Netjes - were accused of "collaborating with the Egyptians [the defendants] by providing them with money, equipment, information", and "airing false news". 
  
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Al-Jazeera's Sue Turton: "It's really heart-breaking and infuriating" 
  
 Al-Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, was banned from operating inside Egypt after the authorities accused it of broadcasting reports sympathetic to former President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Jazeera has consistently denied the allegations. 
  
 Qatar has supported the Brotherhood and is unpopular with Egypt's government. 
  
 Earlier this month, Fahmy shouted from the dock that the trial was a "vendetta against al-Jazeera". 
  
 He complained that they were "hostages" in a political battle between Egypt and Qatar. 
  
 Al-Jazeera trial 
  
 Defendants included al-Jazeera's Cairo bureau chief, Mohamed Fahmy, who is Canadian-Egyptian, Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed and Australian correspondent Peter Greste 
  
 They denied charges of spreading false news and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood 
  
 The three men were seized in a raid at a Cairo hotel on 29 December and have been held at Cairo's Tora prison 
  
 The court tried a total of 20 people, including nine al-Jazeera employees 
  
 Who are the al-Jazeera journalists on trial in Egypt? 
  
 Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott made a direct appeal to Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi for Greste's release. 
  
 US Secretary of State John Kerry, visiting Cairo over the weekend, said he spoke to Egyptian officials about "the essential role of a vibrant civil society, free press, rule of law and due process in a democracy". 
  
 Human rights group Amnesty International has condemned the verdicts. 
  
 "This is a devastating verdict for the men and their families, and a dark day for media freedom in Egypt, when journalists are being locked up and branded criminals or 'terrorists' simply for doing their job," said the groups' Middle East and North Africa director Philip Luther. 
  
 Egypt's authorities have cracked down harshly on Islamists and secular activists since Mr Morsi was removed by the military in July 2013. 
  
 Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested. |||||
A:
Egypt today sentenced three al-Jazeera journalists to at least 7 years in prison on charges of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which the country has deemed a terrorist organization—in a case that saw the prosecution provide scant and largely unrelated evidence. The men were also charged with creating false footage suggesting the country was facing a civil war, the AP reports. Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy, and Egyptian Baher Mohammed had been reporting on protesters backing ousted president Mohamed Morsi and were detained in a December raid on their Cairo hotel room. The trio has been housed in a 13-foot cell for 23 hours a day since, the BBC reports. The prosecution's case was thin: It showed video obtained from the journalists covering a veterinary hospital and Christian life, photos from Greste's family vacation, a news report made while the trio wasn't in the country, and a pop video by the Australian singer Gotye, notes al-Jazeera. (As the New York Times reports, "There was no publicly available evidence that the journalists had either supported the Brotherhood or broadcast anything inaccurate.") "We are deeply concerned that this verdict is part of a broader attempt to muzzle media freedoms," says Australia's foreign minister. The country's prime minister has voiced his concerns to Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Mohammed was sentenced to an additional three years for possessing ammunition—a charge al-Jazeera says resulted from a single leftover shell he'd been keeping as a souvenir. There were 17 other co-defendants, including other al-Jazeera journos and students accused of giving footage to the journalists; 11 tried in absentia received 10-year sentences.