Fahmy felt betrayed by prime minister
Freed journalist Mohamed Fahmy lashed out at Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday, accusing him of washing his hands of his case when intervention with the highest levels of the Egyptian government was most needed.
Speaking at a news conference in Toronto, Fahmy said he initially refused to believe Harper was not bringing his full weight to bear on Egyptian authorities.
“While you here citizens in Canada and around the world clearly understood the urgency of the situation we faced in prison in Egypt, the Harper government did not,” Fahmy said.
“Sitting in that prison cell, it was difficult not to feel betrayed and abandoned by Prime Minister Harper.”
Instead of taking action to lean on the Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Sissi, Fahmy said Harper turned the case over to lower-level members of his government who simply didn’t have the power to help.
Fahmy, 41, was the Cairo bureau chief for Al-Jazeera English when he was arrested in Egypt in 2013 with two colleagues. He was ultimately convicted of terror-related charges and sentenced to three years in prison in a widely condemned retrial this year for airing what a court described as “false news” and coverage biased in favour of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Fahmy, who finally arrived in Toronto on Sunday after Sissi pardoned him, met Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau on Monday evening and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair on Tuesday to talk about issues of media freedom.
Both opposition leaders had tried to help during his long ordeal and the meetings, he said, were not to be taken as a political endorsement for the Oct. 19 election.
“I’m a journalist; I cannot endorse anyone,” he said after meeting Mulcair. “One of the things I was concerned about in my own case was the magnitude of the overlap between journalism and politics and I don’t want this to be repeated.”
Still, he expressed gratitude to the NDP leader and party for their support.
“You do know who I am not voting for. That’s for sure.”
At his earlier news conference, Fahmy did say that members of the Conservative government had been unwilling to talk to him or his lawyers during his long ordeal.
“There are no words to describe when you are wrongfully convicted and sitting in a cold cell infested with insects nurturing a broken shoulder,” Fahmy said. “But when you’re there, your only hope is that your prime minister will do everything in his power to get you out of there.”
A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, has said Harper did indeed speak with Egypt’s president and sent several letters on Fahmy’s behalf.