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Egypt’s foreign ministry has summoned the British ambassador over comments he made on a court’s decision to hand down prison sentences for three Al Jazeera journalists, state television has reported. The ministry said yesterday it objected to John Casson’s comments, calling them “unacceptable interference” in the country’s judiciary.

The Cairo court sentenced Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Canadian Mohamed Fahmy to three years in prison while Australian Peter Greste was sentenced in absentia.

Speaking to television cameras in Arabic after the verdict, Casson said he was concerned it could “undermine confidence in the basis of Egypt’s stability, both in Egypt and abroad”.

The comments were posted on the British embassy’s Facebook page, and were met with a wave of negative reaction in Arabic and English.

Meanwhile on Saturday, UK’s Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood said he was “deeply concerned by the sentences”.

Ellwood said that the “sentences will undermine confidence in Egypt’s progress towards strong long-term stability based on implementing the rights granted by the Egyptian constitution”.

The journalists and Al Jazeera vigorously denied the accusations during the course of the trial. Speaking from Sydney on Saturday Greste said he was “shocked” by the court’s decision terming the verdict as “unjust” and “unethical”.

“We’ll do everything we can to fight the verdict to clear our names. We’re not terrorists. We didn’t collude with any organisation. We didn’t broadcast any false news,” Greste said.

Saturday’s verdicts prompted international outrage.

A spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights, Prince Zeid bin Raad, said: “We’re very disturbed by these three sentences and the extra pressure it creates on journalists in Egypt who are just trying to do their jobs.”

The European Union said the verdict represented “a setback for freedom of expression in Egypt”. — Al Jazeera