Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste calls for Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's pardon

Australian Al-Jazeera reporter Peter Greste called on Sunday for Egypt's president to pardon him and two colleagues handed prison sentences in a shock ruling that sparked international condemnation and which he described as "politically motivated".

The Cairo court said Greste, along with Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed, had broadcast "false" news that had harmed Egypt and sentenced them to three years in jail. The case has become an embarrassment for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has said he wished the reporters had been deported rather than put on trial. He may pardon them if he chooses.

"In the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing, the only conclusion that we can come to is that this verdict was politically motivated," Greste, who was tried in absentia after being deported early this year, said in Sydney. "President Sisi now has an opportunity to undo that injustice, to correct that injustice. The eyes of the world are on Egypt. It is now up to President Sisi to do what he said he would do from the outset and that is pardon us if we were ever convicted."

The three journalists were sentenced to between seven and 10 years in jail last year, but an appeals court in January granted them a retrial, saying the verdict had not been backed by evidence. They were arrested in December 2013, months after the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and launched a deadly crackdown on his supporters.

Fahmy and Mohamed were in the Cairo court for the verdict, and Fahmy's lawyer Amal Clooney said she would press the presidency for a pardon. "It's a dangerous precedent in Egypt that journalists can be locked up simply for reporting the news and courts can be used as political tools," she said. 

Canada called for the "immediate return" of Fahmy, while Qatar-based Al-Jazeera denounced the verdict as an "attack on press freedom".  "It's a dark day for the Egyptian judiciary," Giles Trendle, the English channel's acting managing director said in Doha.