Jailed journalist renounces Egyptian citizenship as release ‘imminent’
TORONTO — An Egyptian-Canadian journalist imprisoned for more than a year in Cairo has relinquished his Egyptian citizenship as a condition of his freedom, his fiancée said Monday.
Marwa Omara said it was “a very hard” decision for Mohamed Fahmy.
“He is a proud Egyptian that comes from a family of military servicemen,” Omara wrote in an email to The Canadian Press. “They told him: ‘Nationality is in the heart, and you can come in as a tourist’.” It remained unclear when exactly Fahmy would be released.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told CBC on Monday that Fahmy’s release was “imminent.” He declined to provide any more details. Fahmy, 40, is expected to be deported to Canada when released.
Fahmy’s brother, Adel Fahmy, said Tuesday many of their family members in Egypt are offended and upset at Mohamed for dropping his nationality and don’t want to even say goodbye to him. Adel Fahmy said his brother was devastated but both his fiancée and his mother told him to do it.
Fahmy’s mother sent a public letter to Egypt’s president last weekend, calling her son an “innocent” man in urgent need of medical treatment.
“Mr. President, as a journalist my son never strived to tarnish Egypt’s image. It’s this Al Jazeera case that now smears Egypt’s reputation abroad,” wrote Wafa Abdel Hamid Bassiouni.
Fahmy and two Al Jazeera colleagues — Australian journalist Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohamed — were arrested in December 2013 and convicted of terrorism charges related to their coverage of the violent crackdown on Islamist protests. They were sentenced to between seven and 10 years. Their trial sparked condemnation from human rights activists and media groups around the world. Greste was freed on Sunday.
Prison officials and Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency said Greste’s release resulted from a “presidential approval” and was co-ordinated with the Australian Embassy.
Egyptian authorities had accused the three journalists of providing a platform for ousted president Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, now declared a terrorist organization. But authorities provided no concrete evidence. The three were widely seen as having been caught up in a regional power struggle between Egypt and Qatar, which funds Al Jazeera and had been a strong Morsi backer.
The journalists and their supporters insisted they were simply doing their jobs during a time of violent upheaval
“Mr. President, as a journalist my son never strived to tarnish Egypt’s image. WAFA ABDEL HAMID BASSIOUNI MOTHER OF MOHAMED FAHMY