While Al-Qahtani and Al-Hamid have tried to file complaints in court, those efforts went nowhere because the court system did not process them, Al-Qahtani said.

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Lawyers for the 73 defendants, who also included al-Masry club staff, can file an appeal.

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Much of the file consists of emails between Mr. Mehiri and other journalists, including editors at al-Jazeera, describing his ideas for articles.

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"If anybody reads the accusations that are put in their file, they will surely observe these are only based on suspicions, " said Khalid al-Roken, whose brother and nephew were among those on trial.

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His US military Guantanamo Bay detainee file, obtained by Wikileaks and seen by The Daily Telegraph, claims he allegedly passed the al-Qaeda Arabs to Pakistani security forces who then smuggled them across the border into Pakistan.

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