Three Al Jazeera journalists were sentenced between seven and ten years in prison by an Egyptian judge on Monday after being found guilty of terrorism-related charges.

The three included Australian journalist Peter Greste who was Al Jazeera's Kenya-based correspondent, Canadian-Egyptian national Mohamed Fahmy who served as the bureau chief of Al Jazeera English, and Eyptian producer Baher Mohamed.

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While Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years each, Mohamed was saddled with an extra three years for possession of a weapon. The reason for the charge is that a spent bullet which Mohamed found on the ground during a protest was on his person at the time of his arrest.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott expressed his disappointment over the ruling. Reports said that Abbott had issued a last-ditch plea to Egypt's President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Abbott told the Egyptian president that the Australian journalist Greste was innocent of the terrorism charges.

"I did my best to put it to the president that as an Australian journalist, Peter Greste would not have been taking sides," Abbott said. "He would have simply been reporting on the events that he saw before him. He certainly would have had no interest in promoting the Muslim Brotherhood."

The three journalists were arrested in December in Cairo while covering the aftermath of the army's removal of Mohamed Morsi from the presidency.

Several items were presented by the prosecution as evidence of the defendants's guilt. The items include a BBC podcast, a news report, a pop video by Gotye, and several recordings of non-Egyptian issues.

However, the defense team maintained that the journalists were wrongfully arrested and that the prosecution failed to provide substantial evidence of their guilt.

The managing director of Al Jazeera English, Al Anstey, said that the verdicts defied "logic, sense, and any semblance of justice".

Anstey also released a statement saying the following:

"Today three colleagues and friends were sentenced, and will continue to be kept behind bars for doing a brilliant job of being great journalists. 'Guilty' of covering stories with great skill and integrity. 'Guilty' of defending people's right to know what is going on in their world."

Six other Al Jazeera journalists were tried in absentia and sentenced to seven years as well. Al Jazeera has always maintained the innocence of its journalists and rejected all charges.