Shock, anger follow Egyptian verdict
Ottawa urged to act after journalist gets 7-year sentence
“Thank you Canada. I will be arriving soon for some love. No terrorism plans, I promise :)”
This is one of several tweets Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy had asked his brother to send Monday as soon as an Egyptian judge ordered his much anticipated release.
But in a shocking turn of events, Fahmy and two other Al-Jazeera journalists were sentenced to seven years in prison on terrorism-related charges, a verdict widely denounced as an attack on freedom of expression.
“No one expected this verdict at all,” Fahmy’s brother Sherif said from Cairo. “Mohamed, when I saw him last week … he was extremely optimistic,” he said.
To suddenly see that hope swept away has dealt the family — whose life has been on hold since his arrest six months ago — a crushing emotional blow, he said. “My parents are too old for this.”
Fahmy and his colleagues— Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohamed — were employed with Qatarbased satellite news broadcaster Al-Jazeera English when they were arrested on Dec. 29. The three were accused of providing a platform for the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group of ousted president Mohammed Morsi, which Egypt’s government has branded a terrorist organization, and of airing falsified footage with the intent of damaging Egypt’s national security.
They contend they were being prosecuted simply for doing their jobs as journalists, covering Islamist protests against Morsi’s ouster. Three other foreign journalists, two Britons and a Dutch citizen, were sentenced to 10 years in absentia.
Media groups have said the trial was part of a fight between the government and Al-Jazeera, which authorities accuse of bias toward the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi. The network denies any bias.
The network’s acting Cairo bureau chief, Fahmy was visibly shaken after the verdict.
“I swear they will pay for this,” he shouted angrily from the defendants’ cage.
Fahmy, whose family moved to Canada in 1991, lived in Montreal and Vancouver for years before eventually moving abroad for work, which included covering stories for The New York Times and CNN.
His parents remain Montreal residents.
After Monday’s verdict, Sherif Fahmy said Ottawa should take a clear and public stance in his brother’s defence. “Call the Egyptian president. Call the Egyptian ambassador in Canada, like Britain did today,” he said. “Do something that proves that you actually care for Mohamed. That is what I am asking them to do.”
Egypt’s president has the power to commute the sentence or pardon the three journalists — but only after appeals are finished, a process that could take months. The three would remain in prison throughout the appeals, unless they win a separate “suspension of verdict” ruling. An appeal can grant them a retrial, but only if flaws in the court proceedings are found.
The Canadian government said it was “very disappointed” with the verdict.
“Canada calls on the Egyptian government to protect the rights of all individuals, including journalists, in keeping with the spirit of Egypt’s new constitution and the desire of all Egyptians to build a fully democratic country,” said Lynne Yelich, junior minister responsible for consular affairs.
Ottawa’s response didn’t pass muster with some freespeech advocates, who said the government must ramp up pressure on Egypt, including possible sanctions.
“I want Ottawa to contact President (Abdel Fattah) elSissi and ask him for a pardon and also to publicly call for the release of Mohamed Fahmy,” said Tom Henheffer, executive director of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.
“The only thing that I think is really going to make a difference in this case is to have foreign governments pressure el-Sissi to issue that pardon and to make it clear that that needs to happen or there will be consequences.”
Since Morsi was deposed in the coup, Egypt has handed out more than 1,000 death sentences and hefty prison terms to Islamist and secular critics of the military-backed regime.
“The Egyptian judiciary doesn’t pay attention to these critics,” said Refaat Al Said, a retired senior judge.