Better the devil.....

Today, Peter Greste's brother Michael announced a decision to appeal the sentence passed down by the Egyptian court against the Al Jazeera journalist.

Peter Greste, together with his colleagues , stands accused by the Egyptian government,  of consorting with the Muslim Brotherhood and by association sedition

The lengthy trail of the Al Jazeera  reporters was marked by delays and journeys back and forth from the jail to the court hearing where , caged and isolated,  they listened to the echoes of "justice " from the dim recesses of the judge's bench. In Australia, time has little meaning for hospitals, police stations and government agencies but the Arab sense of hours and minutes in comparison , puts these agencies working in double quick time . Inshallah, God willing, is as vague as a politician being confronted with the truth or something promised during an election campaign.. 

Appeals by the Australian Prime Minister went unheeded , while the judge further accused the journalists  of being "guided by the devil" in their work as reporters. Tony Abbott has more luck appeals to Putin than with the then newly elected President of Egypt.

We are all familiar with the devil, one way or another. Lawyers know that he hides in the detail while competitive sorts leave him to take the hindmost. The Inquisitors of the Spanish Inquisition were also on first name terms with old Nick. For a while there he seemed to have dropped  out of sight but now he's back in the news. 

Acknowledgement to Warner Bros

In all fairness perhaps here , in view of the judge's remarks, the devil should be arrested. After all it seems he is the guilty party stirring up trouble. Too easy?