The father of an Australian journalist jailed in Egypt said his family was stunned by the court's decision to imprison his son, and Australia's Prime Minister vowed his government would work quickly to free the reporter and get him out of Cairo.
Australian Peter Greste was one of three Al-Jazeera journalists sentenced by a Cairo court yesterday to at least seven years in prison on terrorism-related charges stemming from an interview with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Greste's father Juris Greste today told reporters in the family's hometown of Brisbane that he was in a state of shock and was struggling to think straight.
"We're not usually a family of superlatives, but I have to say this morning my vocabulary fails to convey just how shattered we are," Juris Greste told a news conference accompanied by his wife Lois Greste.
"You can never prepare yourself for something as painful as this."
Australia's Foreign Affairs Department called in Egypt's charge d'affaires Sherif Bedeir Hussein to make an official objection to the court ruling.
Hussein, the embassy's first secretary, declined to speak to reporters as he left the 30-minute meeting.
The ambassador, Hassan Hanafy Mahmoud El-Laithy, is currently in Cairo.
"We're obviously shocked, dismayed, really bewildered by the decision of the court in Egypt," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters.
Abbott said Australia respects the legitimacy of the Egyptian government, its justice system and the need "to crack down on extremism including the Muslim Brotherhood, but ... It is important that there be due process, it is important that decisions be made on a fair and just basis."
"The Australian government will continue to make intercessions at every level with the Egyptian government and elsewhere to try to ensure that Peter Greste and his colleagues are swiftly released," Abbott later told Parliament.
