>> announcer: this is al jazeera. hello there, you are watching the news hour live from headquart headquarters in doha and guilty verdict and they sentence three al jazeera journalists to seven and ten years in prison. >> we are deeply dismayed by the fact that a sentence has been imposed and we are appalled by the severity of it. >> foreign minister there

condemning the sentence of peter greste and says her government will try to intervene with the egyptian government. other news as the fighting continues in iraq the u.s. secretary of state has flown in on unannounced visit and we are live there. and the manhunt is over, a south korean script accused of killing five of his comrades has shot himself. ♪ in the past hour we have been hearing an egypt court sentenced two al jazeera journalists to seven years in prison and another to ten years, greste and fahmy and mohamed have been jailed for about six months already and falsely accused of collaborating with the muslim brotherhood and six other al jazeera staff members being

tried have received ten years in jail. mohamed has more. >> guilty verdict nearly six months in the making and the alleged crime doing their job as journalists and al jazeera correspondent greste and producers fahmy and mohamed have been 170 days behind bars in egypt and now sentenced to seven years behind bars and bahmy given additional three years because of possession of weapons he was found with and the verdict was swift. >> this does nothing to be on the claim to transition to democracy. australian government urges the new government of egypt to reflect on what message is being sent to the world about the situation in egypt. >> reporter: they pushed for

maximum sentence and six other journalists tried were sentenced to ten years in prison and accused of spreading false news and aiding the muslim brotherhood which the government designated a terrorist organization and they are charges rejected by al jazeera. a fourth al jazeera journalist was freed last tuesday after spending 30 seven days in prison without being charged. the public prosecutor ordered his release for health reasons and he has been on a hunger strike since january. the trial of al jazeera journalists began on february 20 and triggered a global out cry against media restrictions in egypt and calls for release have been made by u.n., the u.s. white house and the british and common wealth office and eu. the newly elected president el abdel-fattah el-sissi promised to tackle issues including free

speech. the verdict today sends a clear message to both international and local media that egypt does not tolerate this and raises serious questions about egypt's constitution which guarantees freedom of the media and mohamed with al jazeera. >> al jazeera has issued this statement. there is no justification whatsoever in attention of our three colleagues for even one minute to have detained them for 17 seven days is an outrage to have sentenced them to five logic sense and any semblance of justice and the acting director of al jazeera spoke early to my colleague and said the verdict was shocking. >> i don't think it has anything to do with justice. it is another step in the campaign of terrorizing people and terrorizing the media. and al jazeera rejects all the

accusations against our colleagues. the prosecution couldn't actually produce a shred of evidence against them, all the things that came to court as evidence had nothing to do with the accusation. our reporters, our people there were doing their job, they were doing their job properly, providing the coverage that is needed for events in egypt and have nothing to do with politics, they are professional and know what to do and they were doing exactly what they were supposed to do anywhere in the world. so al jazeera is outraged, very angry and very shocked and it's going to continue the struggle to freedom. >> as you said the prosecution has not given a shred of evidence. what can al jazeera do next? >> al jazeera is going to do what it has been doing from the beginning. we are a media institution.

we go through the legal system and we have to go on with our legal battle to provide the support, the legal support that is needed for our people there. and we have a lot of support from the international legal system because this is unjust. this is political verdict. it has nothing to do with the legal verdict. second, we are going to continue with our international campaign to free our journalists. as you know our hash tag free al jazeera journalists have gotten more than 1 billion or around 1 billion tags, this is something egyptian authority should actually listen to and should watch. and we are going to continue that campaign. we are thanking, first of all the international community for all the support that al jazeera and its people have gotten and

at the same time we are asking them to continue that support with us and we are doing this not only for our journalists but for the freedom of the media. >> and al jazeera correspondent is on that list of al jazeera's journalist who was sentenced and joins us now in the studio, as she was saying this is a shocking verdict for many people and not least of all yourself, did you expect anything like this? >> reporter: i really did believe the egyptian justice system was going to be fair and really recognizing that these were politically motivated charges right up until this morning. i know that the guys in that cage in the courtroom thought so. they walked into the courtroom, the journalists were smiling and looking confident so i think it was a shock all around. we did trust the judge would see the charges were politically motivated and no evidence they brought against them that any

way goes close to proving that we aided and abetted terrorism, that is what they are saying we did, that we went in the country and we actually promoted terrorism. i've been a journalist for 25 years. i've never been accused of anything remotely like this but the idea that the behavior is different from anything i covered around the world for that time is ludicrous and these charges are frankly quite ridiculous. >> why do you think sentences have been divide like they have and you and other journalists got ten years, mohamed ten years and greste seven and fahmy got seven. >> reporter: they gave every one ten years as a punishment for not going to the court and putting your case forward, so that was dismissed straight away. the reason that the other one got an extra three years they say for having ammunition which again is ludicrous and he kept a

used bullet he found on the ground during the whole revolution at the beginning and he is a very young producer and completely caught up with the revolution and thought it would be so much better for his country and he like i have a bullet i picked up during the course of the revolution and keep it to keep me safe, that is the kind of reason he had this. to call it am -- ammunition that is not evidence against him. >> with a ten-year jail sentence hanging over you what do you do next and how does this restrict your movements and restrict your job as a journalist and what does it mean for you? >> when i was found out i was on the list and i was pulled to doha to discuss what it men and it has frozen my job as a correspondent that covers a lot of conflict in war zones. the african union welcomed egypt and they suspended them after

the troubles last year and that means if i go to any country in africa there is an agreement that anybody accused or indeed convicted which is what i am of terrorism charges will be handed over to the other country. the same goes for places and very sympathetic and backing egypt and many countries in the middle east very much behind the abdel-fattah el-sissi backed government there and it has frozen us but that is nothing compared to being incarcerated for 17 seven days and now looking at seven years or ten years in prison. >> do we know what happens next at this point, what process of appeal might be available? >> we have been slightly caught short here and hoping the best would happen and now sitting down with the legal team to workout what is the best course of action, do we go for an appeal, do we appeal for a pardon instead and if i was to go through pardon would be through the uk government and we

have to look at the table and what is best for us and especially what is best for the three guys inside because the most important thing is to try and get them out of prison. >> that leads to the next question the campaign to try and free them and you have been very involved in it and involved colleagues across the media spectrum but what more can be done? >> keep going and must be a lot of people out there thinking we did tweet the hash tag and went on demonstrations and did what we could and thinking it has not gotten us anyway but say the guys in prison in court when the campaign started going saying it's working for us because it improved the condition and we are in a cell together than what was the north dreadful unit where two of them were and put using to and it is improving and if it has not gotten them free we have to keep the pressure going and keep the campaign going or egypt may think the world has turned away and looking at the other way and

that is it and leave them in prison. >> what sort of journalism were you doing there and why the government is so convinced we were defaming egypt's reputation? >> i have been doing investigations that upset a lot of people but to be frank the sorts of stories doing last autumn in cairo were run of the mill and reporting on the demonstrations, on the protests but doing things like the football and doing things like sheet farming one of my colleagues did or what was going on in the tourism industry. we cover stories and don't go in a country to look for the political side of things and looking at absolutely everything and we have coverage there for people to see and recognize just like all 24-hour news channels we go out and get the daily news and put it out and it's from ground-breaking stuff but it's what is happening in egypt today and that is all we were doing. >> thanks for joining us here in

the studio and this is one of our journalists who was tried and sentenced to ten years in prison. well, as we have heard, australian foreign minister julie bishop has condemned the government and the government will provide assistance to peter greste. >> the government is shocked at the verdict in the peter greste case. we are deeply dismayed by the fact that a sentence has been imposed and we are appalled by the severity of it. it is hard to credit that the court in this case could have reached this conclusion. the australian government simply cannot understand it based on the evidence that was presented in the case. peter greste is a well respected journalist and he was in egypt to report on the political

situation. he was not there to support the muslim brotherhood. we respect the outcome of the resent elections in egypt and we will now initiate contact at the highest levels in the new egyptian government to see whether we can gain some kind of intervention from the new government and find out whether intervention is indeed possible at this stage. i have spoken at length with peter greste's parents. they are considering their legal options including appeal options. we do not know how long an appeal process would take. but in the meantime we will provide whatever consulate assistance we can to mr. greste and of course to his family.

we understand that egypt has been through some very difficult times and there has been a great deal of turmoil in egypt. but this kind of verdict does nothing to support egypt's claim to be on a transition to democracy and australian government urns the new government of egypt to reflect on what message is being sent to the world about the situation in egypt. freedom and freedom of the press is fundamental to a democracy and we are deeply concerned that this verdict is part of a broader attempt to muzzle the media freedom that upholds democracies around the world. >> correspondent wayne hay is live and wayne pretty strong words there from the foreign minister saying they will follow a course of action but what

lines of communication are open between the australian and the egyptian government? >> reporter: well, just today on monday we heard from the australian prime minister and julie bishop before this verdict was handed down, prime minister saying, confirming over the weekend he had a phone conversation with the egyptian president a al-si si who receivd this terrible sentence and voiced his concern and said to the egyptian president that this could be an opportunity for a p.r. coup is how he termed it if peter greste was not treated harshly. well, obviously he and his al jazeera colleagues have been treated extremely harshly but julie bishop is saying the government will take this to the highest level again to see the

there can be some sort of intervention from the president in the case of specifically peter greste. >> what sort of leverage do they have though, wayne? >> reporter: it's very difficult to say. i mean, they were asked, julie bishop was asked in that media conference after she made that statement and did take some statements from the australian media and she was asked whether there could be some immediate action by the government in the form of perhaps expelling the egyptian ambassador to australian and it's probably not something they will look into at the moment because they need to effectively tread carefully. she has spoken to the parents of peter greste who are here over the phone and she said that they are considering their option obviously alongside peter as to whether there could be an appeal. from that point of view she is saying they need to be careful about the legal procedures from here on in. she did raise the issue of

perhaps a presidential pardon but again at the same time raising the issue of an appeal but she did say if there was to be an appeal she understands that egyptian law after the law is complete could allow for a presidential pardon if that appeal is unsuccessful. >> there were pictures of peter greste's parents, have we heard word from them so far and reaction to what is absolutely devastating news on their son? >> no, they were very reluctant to have any media around them this evening for the announcement from cairo for the verdict, understandably it was a very difficult day for them but i did speak to someone who was with them who said that they were very emotional obviously but that was all the news that we heard from them. they will not speak to the media thissing evening local time but expect them to hold a media conference as they had done

regular will i through peter greste's imprisonment and this will be a difficult and emotional time and have been very out spoken through peter's detention and very active in the media, very active on social media as well. but they clearly were not expecting this verdict. they were prepared for the worst. of course they spoke about that but they didn't really want to think about what that could mean. >> wayne, thanks for bringing us the very latest with peter greste's hometown and his brother michael was in court for the verdict and cannot understand how his brother was found guilty. >> i don't know how the judge came to the decision. ly be very interested to hear his reasons for giving that verdict. but it doesn't make any sense. >> and al jazeera's diplomatic correspondent james page is in new york, joins us from there

and, james, i suppose this is added shot because john kerry was there and brought it up before releasing a whole trench of aids that was due to go to egypt and one wonders what happened at the meeting. >> reporter: kerry brought up the al jazeera journalists, he brought up the court system in egypt but at the meetings he seems to have been satisfied enough, as you say, to release these funds, $650 million, more than half a billion in funding that had been suspended and also talk about supplying egypt with these ten apache helicopters they have been waiting for a long time and secretary of state kerry who is still in the region will face some tough questions in the next few hours and he is in baghdad now and he will meet journalists while he is there

and has journalists travelling with him and i'm sure they will be asking about the al jazeera journalists. here at the united nations we understand people have been following this verdict very, very closely. i've been speaking to the office of the high commissioner for human rights and they have in the past condemned the detention of al jazeera journalists and they are told working on a statement right now and should have that pretty soon. >> great to hear that if and when you get it. if we look back at the trial which has been around for a number of months now, what so sort of u.n. maneuvers if any to try to secure the release of these journalists? >> reporter: well, certainly the u.n. has been using its good offices in private and putting pressure on egyptians and i know at the highest level that has been done and u.n. secretary general moon has been involved in raising their cases. when i walk around the corridors

of the united nations and speak to diplomates they are aware of the case, often approaching me and asking me what the latest news is and it's worth perhaps stating what is somewhat an obvious fact but peter, one of the three journalist and very well-known in africa and the u.n. does a lot of work in places like the democratic republic of is a somalia and know his situation and of all three journalists and one final point, i spoke to the egyptian ambassador at the u.n. and spoken to him a number of times about the situation. just a couple days ago he told me that the justice system, he had no control over, no one in the foreign ministry did. it was completely independent. well, that may be so. it may be an independent justice system. i doesn't to be one that has much justice in it.

>> james thanks for joining us there with a view from the u.n. and we will get more reaction later in the day and bringing it to you. and robin is east africa bureau chief of south africa e-news channel and she met peter greste. >> he is a world-class journalist covering this region amazingly for the last ten years. i remember back this 2012 when president hamood of somalia was elected and the next day a suicide bomber tried to kill him at a press conference peter was at. when i spoke to him later he was telling me how traumatic and amazing it was to be able to be in the middle of the news as it were but in a humble and

empathetic way and peter doesn't deserve this and has done nothing but be an unbelievable reporter and put his life on the lines several times to get the story to people and people are not hearing the stories that peter would have told in a fair and balanced matter. >> following reaction on social media and twitter erupted into outrage and disbelief over this and following every twist and turn of this trial. >> we are taught not to say but i will this time it's universed condemnation and nothing against what happened and the judiciary and have a look at this and this reiterates about not giving up. this is free a.j. staff hash tag and the amount it has grown in the last few minutes and hot space in australia obviously,

africa where peter greste was based and not much in cairo and egypt and western europe and with the united states waking up there is more. this is why you don't give up. if you join the protest and tweet a picture of yourself and if you go to a protest keep doing this, we need to make sure this is not a spike on twitter but it carries on and forgive the ipad but the wi-fi is stretches to the limits and this is hash tag a.j. trial and despite an hour ago at 12000 teats an hour, that is first tweets, imagine the retweets and favorites after that and it falls away because twitter is a moment of a thing and we will show you a few tweets we found earlier and a mix of sorts of things and trending was sent to me earlier and what is happening for me, we may have to zoom in a bit to get more, among trending things like send me to wimbledon

and the world cup for the uk and portugal free al jazeera staff and it's not a crime, peter greste and it's great to see four of the top ten trending tweets in uk have to do with our journalists and struggles and that is good to see and this is a picture of relatives of may home fahmy and this is his brother, his mother and behind them, this is his fiancee and i saw a tweet earlier that said this is what he said, this is what his brother said, this is not a system. this is not a country. they have ruined our lives. a couple more things i want to show you that someone sent in to me a drawing, do not think gagging journalists, jailing

them and calling them, terrorist is not like spilling their blood and all journalists detained in egypt and the last thing i want to show you is this because i have to say this saddened me when i read this from carolyn in uganda and look what she has written here i want to be a journalist when i grow up and it's scary to think i could end up in jail in egypt or elsewhere for being one. and that is a scary sort of thought but young people who want to be journalists are looking what is happening to al jazeera journalists and thinking i'm worried about that, i'm want to be that but i'm scared about what could happen in the future. so much stuff coming in and i want to thank you and my twitter has been exploded and very difficult to keep up with it but send tweets and i will keep up with them as many as i can and we have contact at a.j.e me and al jazeera is the press feed if you want to keep up to date with the latest and remember what i put on the screen there, journalism is not a crime.

>> thanks very much and it really has sparked reaction from around the world. and one of the other defendants in this case, mohamed fahmy has been described by fellow journalists as tenacious and truthful and one who knew him is p.b.s. expert and described her experience with fahmy. >> margaret and chief correspondent for the p.b.s. news hour and chief of the overseas unit and i met him three days before the incident when through a local connection he came to an editing suite in a hotel room and provided voice over for egyptian characters we wanted translated into english and it was after a mob stormed the embassy and penetrated to the upper floors and hoisted the egyptian flag and when we arrived back there there were

young men in front but did not look particularly dangerous. our crew, our camera crew, went in for a closer filming look while i and the driver at the time and another young egyptian producer with me waited in the van so we could quickly get away. the driver abandon the car and people were laying in front of the car and started to knock on the car and a mob approached the five lanes and i could see the local producer and my camera man and my producer were being pursued by this mob. and mohamed fammy and my driver abandon the car and i went over the middle seat and jumped in the van as fahmy held on to the back railing and said drive, drive and the mob in front of me said drive through them and i will get you out of here and that is what happened and for the next five or six minutes he

directed me down this side street and this side street and we managed to get to a safe place and he absolutely saved our lives. i'm no legal expert but i can tell you that mohamed fahmy struck me on both occasions of nothing more and nothing less than a professional journalists. >> a civil rights lawyer and joins us from islamabad and we just heard there a colleague talking about one of the defendants as a professional journalist. what's your reaction to these verdicts we are seeing now from this cairo court? >> well, my reaction is one of anger and dismay as well as the fundamental concept of the freedom of expression and the rest is concerned. on one hand we see freedom of expression being sacrificed in the streets of cairo by the government but on the other hand those two western states, united states and australia which has a

vested interest in mr. peter greste they all have the responsibility because the removal of the morsi is no longer in use and that was elected and now we have a dictator with a vested interest in europe and coming at a high cost and the same government is trying to dismantle every freedom of expression and mr. peter greste verdict today proves that. all i have to say is this, that the war is literally treading a very type rope of hyprocracy and we know he is in the east and world leaders are watching but again for the last one year or more the al jazeera journalists and that is not the issue of al jazeera journalist, it's the issue of the freedom of the press that we are seeing it

being sacrificed of the vested interests of countries and a government guarded by them and now we and just like in nigeria several years ago when a government was removed over there by the military backing of france and other countries, we have a similar situation that military government is now in power with the backing of the western led by the united states and nobody is shedding tears on the freedom of expression. let me say one thing. >> sure. >> this is that freedom of expression that means and we clearly talked about and feel proud when we tried to condemn people's republic of china or any other regime that is not democratic. but here we are ourselves sacrificing that very notion of democracy and freedom of press. >> yes, you mentioned freedom of

press and why do you think al jazeera journalists were targeted in this case? >> well, the reason is this: that al jazeera plays a very pivotal role in the politics of middle east. they uphold the rights of the people. they speak about them. they do not side with anybody. the character and role has been very nonpartisan but because of nonpartisan role does not sit well with dick -- dictotorial government and this has to be accepted by great people like peter greste and other fall -- fellows and saying law is not accepted in egypt and it's the gun that carried the day and today is a bad day for the

freedom of press and but i have to say the western hyprocacy led by the united states has won because despite some condemnation that we will hear about the verdict regarding peter greste, you will see mr mrmr. mr. el abdel-fattah el-sissi held by the worst and the change. >> and thank you very much for joining us from islamabad but we have brought you profiles of peter greste as well as fahmy and let's look at the third al jazeera colleague to be imprisoned today in egypt and al jazeera simon worked with him during a violent crack down on anti-coup protesters in cairo last year and full of praise for his work. >> i'm simon mc-greger wood and i work for al jazeera english

and i first met mohamed and worked together for the first time in summer of 2013 in cairo and he made a lasting impression on me because it's everything you want in a journalist and he was energetic and always engaged and always relentlessly professional and calm under pressure of deadline and asking the right questions and wanted to find out a little more about the stories we were covering. he was a good person to have on your team because don't forget these were stressful days. these were dangerous days. and he was the right person to have with you. one of the most amazing things about him was despite the fact he was egyptian and we were covering these events on the streets of his capitol and his country i never really knew what he felt about what was happening. he certainly never revealed his political views to me and i thought that was an outstanding

commitment to journalism and his commitment to balance impartiality and grateful for everything he did for me and all the help he gave me in the days when we worked together in cairo. i hope, i'm sure everyone does, this terrible ordeal is nearly at its end. we all want to see him back where he belongs, back with his family and eventually back doing what he is so good at, being a journalist. i'd love to see him again and i would love to work with him again. >> let's talk to the lawyer who joins us live from london and thanks for being with us. you have been following the trial very closely along with millions of others around the world. was the evidence there to warrant these verdicts? i can speak on the basis of what i have seen reported on b.b.c. and c.n.n. others and it has to

be one of dismay and shock but not surprise and we need to look at the context. we had 528 people sentenced to death in march. 37 sentenced to death in april. and in the context of a military coup that took place almost a year ago and perhaps unsurprising we have three journalists sentenced in this man tear where the reporting that i've seen so far indicates that the evidence in support of the convictions is meager at best, nonexistent at worst. >> that is what a lot of people are saying, the evidence presented by the prosecution was simply put absurd in a lot of cases and one piece of evidence was found that peter greste's belongings and should we not be surprised by this verdict? >> my point again, one shouldn't be surprised if you look at the

context and military coup and sentenced to death in april. this is a mockery of the legal process and it will be wrong to attribute any semblance of trial to what wh happened in this cas and we had amnesty international condemn the trials that took place in march and april as well as u.n. commission for human rights. what the egyptian regime will do and in this context of course what many have said is this is just a reflection of the totalatarian regime and a system where there is a fair trial and it's distinct and separate and a strong, independent judiciary, the three instances that have been reported so far, the sentences in march, 528 for sentences in april, 37 sentenced to death and the sentences

handed down today do not indicate from an objective perspective that there exists in egypt in matters of this nature an independent judiciary or those who are in a situation similar to these defendants are likely to have anything like a fair trial. and we will leave it there but thank you very joining us live from london and reacting there to the verdict for al jazeera journalists which we heard a few hours ago in cairo courtroom just to remind our viewers of what that verdict was. local producer and egyptian produc producer seven years and three years for having a spent and used bullet that he has kept at his home as a keep sake. australian peter greste given seven years and the bureau chief fahmy also given seven years and

another six al jazeera journalists given ten years each. and al jazeera said this verdict defies logic, sense and any semblance of justice and getting plenty of this and will bring it through the day as we update the story that has broken in the last few hours, the verdict of the al jazeera journalists. ♪ let's bring you other news now and u.s. secretary of state arrived in iraq's capitol on unannounced visit and rebels expanding control of the northwest. they are now in control of mozel in the northeast and border crossings to the north. and crossing along the only major road west into jordan and

also in control of other parts of the country and fallusia which is by baghdad and released by iraq military and the army looks to seize a number of weapons after isil militants retreated from their location and in mozel the islamic states are giving the koran and captured by isil two weeks ago and we are live for us there and first of all let's look at the visit by the u.s. secretary of state john kerry and what do we know about his agenda in baghdad at the moment. >> he has met earlier with prime minister malachi and it's not difficult to imagine what the conversation was about.

certainly the u.s. administration has been pressing on iraqi prime minister to form a government as quickly as possible and include a government which would really all of iraq and also put into consideration not only the grievance of the sunni and regions of the current with the prime minister from many times. the second question is how to deal with this sunni rebellion and the u.s. is mainly worried about the spread of the fighters of the islamic state in iraq and prime minister malachi asked for air strikes but the u.s. made it clearly they do not want them interfering too much into this situation simply because it doesn't want to be seen as taking sides of one side versus another and probably the third point will be advisors arriving

in iraq or some of them may have already arrived and their role is to invite the iraq military and train them again since that was their main role for u.s. troops in the country until to years ago and the main conversations they would have had. and the secretary of state is also meeting with other iraqi politicians from both sunnis and shis and will hear from both sides and hear the grievance on both sides and try to get this country out of the crisis it is in at the moment and a crisis that has been spreading for the past two weeks. >> and the u.s. may be very key to seeing all sides coming together and seeing some sort of spl political unity but what in iraq for all of that to happen? >> reporter: well when you speak

to tribes or sunni leaders they will tell you there is need for a political process to start as quick as possible and they will also underline that will be the only way at some point to isolate the fighters of the islamic state in iraq. however, there is a problem here. neither them nor some people here in the kurdish region want to deal with prime minister malachi himself. the problem is he has won the election. his party got the majority last april. he hasn't been able to form a government ever since because of all these political bickering that has been really stalling this country. i would say ever since the first elections back in 2005. how to go ahead, that is very difficult point, prime minister malachi has no indication he has any intention to step down. they may find some solution where he has less powers and all of this is speculation and a

difficult way to get out of it politically and on the ground as you described earlier with the map things are getting worse and worse and prime minister and central government is simply losing more ground by the day and fighters have reached the border with jordan, the border with syria and it's spreading through the region and it's frightening very much when you stand in the country. >> thanks for the update there from iraq. for much more on iraq you can go to our website, al jazeera.com. there you will find an interactive map which shows the advance by sunni rebels through the country and you can click on the icons to bring up details in each location. the controversial has arrived in pakistan and he is there to lead protests against the shiriff government and thousands of people broke through police

barricades at the airport where his plane was due to land and 12 demonstrators were killed last week as supporters fought with police and he is based in canada and heads an organization called the karan international and provides free education to hundreds of thousands in pakistan and for the past few years he is an anticorruption campaigner and in january last year tens of thousands of demonstrators in islamabad demand the government steps down and called off protests after a deal with the administration led by p.p.p. and we are joined live from islamabad and the country very unhappy he was diverted there. what do we know about his location and what he is doing no now? >> well, after the aircraft was diverted, it touched down at islamabad international airport, it was then surrounded by police

chandl commanders and he was asked to come out of the aircraft but refused to budge and there was a standoff. he wanted military to come in and give him security to be able to travel to his residence even though the government had mentioned for a helicopter. after that the governor of the province intervened and he convinced him that he should leave in his company, the governor headed to the airport, bulletproof were brought to the airport and finally leaving the airport but the way this has been handled by the central government and the prevention government it's very shabby and criticism that perhaps the government over reacted by preventing him for landing in islamabad airport. >> is the shariff government within its right or correct to be concerned here?

of course they are tapping into widespread discontent on current leadership. >> what he is trying to do is to capitalize on the anti-government sentiment, pakistan and led by the person is not happy with the government over allegations of corruption during election rigging and in other words all he is trying to do is to be a part of the grand alliance against shariff and the government is saying on the other hand this is no time for politics, the military is already busy with a major operation and this is a time for national unity and there are security concerns. so the government holding to its point where they are trying to destabilize this government. >> i wonder what the government will do neck and what the country's plans are and how long he intends to stick around in

pakistan. >> reporter: that's a good question. what has happened so far is that he told everybody that once at the residence he may call off what is happening in islamabad and will be interesting to see his next move and is he likely to hold a big rally, trying to muster support against the government, it will be interesting to see if he is put under house arrest and allowed to roam around freely because the government says there are legitimate security concerns. >> okay, thanks very much for the update there from islamabad. and afghan presidential candidate abdulla has an audio tape that proves an an official committed fraud and they say it's a fake and they have been holding street protests in several cities in support of decision to back out of the election. and he withdrew last week saying

the june 14 vote would be illegal. south korean authorities say they captured a fugitive soldier accused of killing five colleagues and caught after he turned the gun on himself and capture end a huge manhunt but tracked him down at the border of north korea and harry faucet has this update from soul. >> after 24 hour standoff it has all ended in pretty dramatic fashion. this man, a 22-year-old serving his two-year service just three months away from his discharge and turns his rifle on himself and shot himself in the torso and they moved in and put him in an ambulance and to the hospital and he is in a hospital somewhere down the coast, the same hospital which some of the soldiers he shot and injured are still being treated, that took

place south of the dmz and it's very close to the demille -- military zone and some killed and seven injured in the immediate attack and on the run overnight and the next day and shooting another soldier at a check point and it was at that point he was surrounded in the effort to try to get him to come quietly and they were talking to him at 8:20 and he requested to speak to his family and he and his older brother were taken to the scene to speak to him directly and right there when he turned the gun on himself and tried to commit suicide. this is a sum met on eliminating the land minds being held and how much progress has been being made since they were ban under a global agreement 15 years ago and it's a treaty and aims to eliminate antipersonnel

land mines and came in force in 1989 and will get rid of them in four years and all minds clears in ten years and united states, india and pakistan have not signed it, since 1999, 44 million mines have been destroyed and tonya reports from the capitol. >> reporter: shattered by a land mine and her aunt was killed and now an activist and raising awareness of the land mines left over from the civil war there and ground up peanuts will be the base of the meal tonight and struggles to find paid work and needs help. >> translator: if the government gives us subsidies would be good but if they gave us food it would be gone too quickly and i need a job so i can provide for myself.

>> reporter: but the immediate help that the government is giving is in mind detection and to do that it uses rats, 15 years ago they helped launch the antipersonnel mine convention and now three quarters are on board and they are almost rid of land mines. this is a success story but the ban may be 100% successful when all 35 of remaining counties sign up and all personal land mines stockpiles are destroyed and it includes, russia, china and united states. 20,000 people a year were killed and injured by land mines and other things and now that is down to about 900. the international committee of the red cross says the stigma attached to land mines may shame the remaining countries to joining the ban. >> there is little use of

antipersonnel mines today and virtually no production or transfer for states outside of the convention and we feel it's only a matter of time between that stigma and that unacceptability of personnel mines brings these countries into the folds. >> reporter: people suffered from land mines around the world and although great progress has been made, 15 years after the ban the work is still far from over. tonya is live and what is the message to come out of this conference? >> reporter: the one overriding allowed the message to be delivered here so far is dell gdell -- delegates and momentum built up over 15 years and countries

affected by land mines and 31 of them have land mines in the ground and killing people every year and that has to be dealt with and so that is the main message here, one of keeping up the momentum because we are still a long way of achieving the goal of the convention and a mine free world but need to talk about that more about that and here is steve, the chairman of the international campaign to ban land mines. tell me, a lot has been achieve but in recent years a couple of countries and tell me a little bit about that. >> use of the weapon is extraordinary rare and when it does happen it's condemned by other governments. 15 years ago dozens of countries were laying millions of mines each and every year, in the past year we identified two governments that used the weapon, that would be syria and berma in limited numbers and governments who do not care about international opinions and

norms and rebel groups have continued to use and farc in columbia. >> reporter: a lot achieved so far and countries not on board with it adhering to most rules but there are millions of land mains stockpiled by countries including the united states. >> the biggest stockpiler are china and russia and u.s. have not joined the convention and they collectively have more than 100 million land mines but the u.s. has not used them this 20 years and china and russia say they agree with the objection and have not had mines for years and feeling the power of the treaty is effecting those who stayed outside so far. >> land mines use little these days but we are still in a world wrecked by conflict. what message or what lessons can be learned, do you think by the relative success of this treaty can people around the world take out of it and perhaps use in

current conflicts? >> this treaty has been successful because of a partnership between nongovernmental societies and governments and international organizations icrc and we came together in a common cause to emphasis the humanitarian impact of weapons, not the narrow utility and through the partnership we created humanitarian disarmament and the conflict first and foremost and are able to make a huge difference in saving lives and saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the past years. >> thank you for joining us and we appreciate your insight into issues being discussed here. >> tonya thanks us for joining us there and stay with us on al jazeera, i'll have another full half hour bulletin of news ahead and bringing you the latest on the verdict of the al jazeera journalists.

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