CAIRO: An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a journalist with the Al-Jazeera news network to six months in prison in absentia for producing a film highlighting police torture, judicial sources said.

Howayda Taha, currently at the satellite station's Qatar base, had been charged with “harming Egypt's national interest” and planning to air fabricated images.

Taha, an Egyptian national, was planning to leave the country on January 8 after completing her reporting. But she was stopped at Cairo airport and later charged but released on bail. She can appeal the verdict handed down by the state security criminal court.

Rights groups have accused the court of violating internationally recognised fair trial norms and Egypt of terrorising the media.—AFP