12 January 2004	Monday	19 Ziqa'ad 1424

KARACHI, Jan 11: The two French journalists, whose sentence was suspended for a week, will file an appeal against the trial court's verdict in the Sindh High Court on Monday.

Joel Marc Epstein and Jeon Paul Gullateau, reporter and photographer, respectively, of the French weekly "L'Express," were sentenced on Saturday to a six-month jail term by an additional district and sessions judge on the charge of travelling to Quetta without permission.

The two journalists, who were taken into custody after the pronouncement of the judgment, were, however, released hours after as the court suspended the sentence for a week on an application filed by defence counsel Nafees Siddiqui.

"The sentence passed against both the convicts is suspended for one week on furnishing solvent surety each in the sum of Rs100,000 and PR bond in the like amount, and the accused/ convicts are given time of one week for filing appeal," the judge wrote in the suspension order.