Al-Jazeera journalists plead not guilty

Security officials raided their suite and accused them of having unlicensed equipment and setting up a media center for the Brotherhood at a five-star hotel overlooking the Nile River in the upscale district of Zamalek. They also were accused of fabricating footage to show the country in a state of civil strife, harming its reputation.

Authorities later charged them and 17 other people with belonging to and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and threatening national security.

Only eight of those charged were in the courtroom on Thursday — the three journalists and five students arrested earlier in December while protesting Morsi's ouster — while the others were being tried in-absentia, including two Britons and a Dutch woman.

Greste, Fahmy and Mohamed wore white jumpsuits and stood in the defendants' cage as they shouted out that they were disconnected from outside world, lacked access to books or newspapers and were allowed only one hour of out of their cell each day.

They said they were allowed a weekly visit by their lawyers and prison officials monitored family visits. Relatives including Fahmy's brother, Adel, said that conditions are much better after they were recently moved from a high-security prison where they were kept in solitary confinement and slept on the floor with no blankets. He said they now are together in a cell and sleep on beds. They also get food and clothes during visits.