Amal Clooney 'risked arrest' after identifying flaws relating to Peter Greste case

The human rights barrister said she was warned by Egyptian officials that she risked arrest after identifying serious flaws in its judicial system that resulted in three al-Jazeera journalists being jailed, according to reports.

Ms Clooney, who is a lawyer for one of the three men, spoke to The Guardian following the appeal hearing, and said they were victims of the same flaws she flagged in a February 2014 report about the Egyptian court system.

The report written on behalf of the International Bar Association said Egypt's judicial system was not as independent as it could be.

It drew attention to the fact officials in the ministry of justice have wide powers over nominally independent judges, and pointed out the amount of control the government can exert over state prosecutors.

The document was written before she became involved in the al-Jazeera case, officials finding it so damning they threatened her team with arrest if she attempted to present it in Egypt.

"When I went to launch the report, first of all they stopped us from doing it in Cairo," Ms Clooney said.

"They said 'does the report criticise the army, the judiciary, or the government?' We said 'well, yes.' They said 'well then, you're risking arrest.'"

The report made a number of recommendations, including ending the procedure of hand-picking judges for certain politicised cases.

"That recommendation wasn't followed, and we've seen the results of that in this particular case where you had a hand-picked panel led by a judge who is known for dispensing brutal verdicts," she said.

Peter Greste, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, who Clooney is representing, were sentenced to between seven and 10 years in jail last June by judge Mohamed Nagy Shehata.

Mr Shehata became notorious during the trial for making jokes, mocking Mr Fahmy's fiancé and wearing sunglasses for most of the hearing.

A few months later he also sentenced 188 people to death.

At the three men's appeal on Thursday, a new judge refused to throw out the case but granted the men a retrial after recognising problems with the initial process.