Egypt’s appeals court slams Fahmy trial
Family more hopeful for jailed journalist’s release at retrial on Thursday
Mohamed Fahmy was given new hope for freedom on Monday when Egypt’s highest appeals court issued a damning appraisal of the trial that condemned the Al Jazeera journalist and two colleagues to lengthy jail terms on terrorism-related charges.
The court overturned the ruling on Jan. 1 and ordered a retrial. But until now its reasoning had not been made public.
In the meantime Fahmy, a Canadian, is expected to be released under a presidential law allowing the deportation of convicted foreigners. But in a surprise move Sunday, an Egyptian court said that he and Egyptian journalist Baher Mohamed would be retried on Thursday — with unusual haste.
The announcement was so abrupt that Fahmy’s high profile lawyer, Amal Clooney, who is in Los Angeles, will be unable to arrive in Cairo in time for the opening of the new trial. She will be instructing Fahmy’s Egyptian lawyer, his family said.
Fahmy’s brother, Adel, said they were heartened by the appeal court’s denigrating statement on the earlier trial. “It completely vindicates the journalists, including my brother. That gives us a lot of hope.”
The appeals court found that the three — including Fahmy, Mohamed, and Australian Peter Greste, who was deported last week — should not have been tried under a penal code article dealing with counter-terrorism, as they did not commit any acts of violence.
They were convicted of spreading lies to support the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, linked with ousted president Mohamed Morsi, in an effort to undermine Egypt’s national security. Fahmy was sentenced to seven years and Mohamed to 10.
“This is very important,” said Mohamed Lotfy, executive director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, who observed the original trial for Amnesty International. “Basically the government was using a very bad definition of terrorism in the penal code to shut up the journalists.”
The appeal court “said the article was misused and doesn’t apply to the Al Jazeera journalists. That’s a good precedent to set,” he added.
It also pointed to several erroneous procedural issues, including an improper arrest warrant and contradictory statements by technical experts on Al Jazeera’s video footage.
Nevertheless, a retrial verdict that frees the journalists is far from assured and the judge who will preside has a track record of tough-mindedness.
Adel Fahmy said his brother was tired of the “torment” of emotional highs and lows as his hopes for freedom were raised, then dashed, over the past month. Disillusioned with Ottawa’s efforts, the family launched an online campaign to push for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s intervention.
They are asking supporters to use the hashtag “Harper-Call-Egypt” to encourage the prime minister to kick the government’s efforts to free Fah- my into a higher gear. A spokeswoman for Lynne Yelich, the minister for consular affairs, said in a tweet that Harper has “personally” raised Fahmy’s case at the highest level of the Egyptian leadership.
His family remains grieved and confused.
“This has been torture for Mohamed,” said his fiancée, Marwa Omara, in a phone interview.
“He said, ‘As a prisoner, I don’t want to be told I’m going to be free to leave tonight,’ ” if nothing is going to happen.
Nor is the family impressed with a report in which Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi told the German Spiegel online that he would declare a “general amnesty” for prisoners, including Fahmy and Mohamed. Admitting that he was embarrassed by their arrest, he said, “I never wished these problems on myself. They harm Egypt’s reputation. But the situation we found ourselves in at the time was one of political turmoil and confusion.”
Previous announcements of amnesties, however, have come to nothing, and hundreds await execution after mass death sentences.
“We look at all this as diplomatic hot air,” said Adel Fahmy.