The brother of detained Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy says the family is “shocked” and “devastated” that a retrial has been set for him and another Al-Jazeera journalist jailed in Egypt.
Adel Fahmy told CBC News on Sunday the Canadian government needs to push harder.
“Now we have to face a circus of a retrial,” said Fahmy. “We are devastated. Our bags were packed, we had a press conference in Toronto airport booked so he could address the media once he was released.”
‘He is now on paper fully Canadian.’-— Adel Fahmy about his journalist brother
Fahmy said his brother renounced his Egyptian citizenship because authorities there had told him that was the best way he could gain release.
“He is now on paper fully Canadian,” said Adel Fahmy. “We don’t have any sense what went wrong.”
Fahmy said the Canadian government was too soft in its reaction, and accused them of employing “diplomatic rhetoric” by using phrases like “deeply concerned.”
“Even the American government called the decision ‘draconian,'” he said.
Re-trail set for Thursday
The session for the retrials has been set for Feb. 12, according to Mostafa Nagy, the lawyer for Egyptian journalist Baher Mohamed.
Fahmy and Baher have been in a Cairo jail since December 2013, when they and Al-Jazeera colleague Australian journalist Peter Greste were arrested and accused of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood.
Greste was freed on Feb. 1, although one month earlier a court had ordered a retrial for him and his two colleagues.
The three were sentenced to seven to 10 years on charges including spreading lies to help a terrorist organization.
International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has requested a meeting with Egypt’s president and foreign minister to speak to them on Fahmy’s behalf.
“Despite clear assurances that he would be released, Mr. Fahmy remains in detention in Egypt,” Clooney said in a letter obtained by the media on Saturday.
The letter asks for a meeting with President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi or his officials “as soon as possible.”
Clooney said lawyers for the journalist had been told after Greste was released and deported that Fahmy’s release would be “imminent.” Last Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird also said Fahmy’s release was “imminent,” but did not elaborate.
Family of @MFFahmy11 ‘disappointed & upset’ that new trial date set for jailed Egy-Cdn journ, say #Canada govt has to step up pressure #CBC
— Saša Petricic (@sasapetricic) February 8, 2015
“Canada is deeply concerned with the announcement that a retrial date has been set despite assurances that Mr. Fahmy would be released along with his colleague, Peter Greste,” Minister of State for Consular Affairs Lynne Yelich said in a statement Sunday.
“Canada calls for the immediate release of Mr. Fahmy. I have, along with former Minister Baird, continued to raise this government’s concerns regarding Mr. Fahmy’s case with senior Egyptian officials and I will continue to do so. We remain hopeful that Mr. Fahmy’s case will be resolved in a timely manner,” Yelich said.
Fahmy family statement on news of the retrial:
“Mohamed never requested that he drops his citizenship. The authorities visited him before the appeal hearing on January 1st. and made a deal with him to renounce it in return for his freedom claiming this was the only way out for him and Peter. It was one of the most difficult decisions he has ever taken that has left him demoralised.
Now, the general prosecutor is complicating matters even though both the presidency and the prime minister have expressed their desire to let him go as soon as possible
Yes, we are worried and we have been let down by the Canadian government’s conservative approach in the handling of the case. That is also the feeling of the Egyptian officials and public figures sympathising with us who are shocked that the Canadian prime minister had not intervened yet to expedite matters while the Australian most senior official has done an outstanding job in the release of his colleague Peter Greste. Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, CJFE, Canadian media, and Fahmy and his lawyers have all called openly and privately on prime minister Harper to take a stand but he has failed us immensely. We are now doing the leg work ourselves as a family knocking the doors of the prosecutor, foreign ministry and presidency. Amal Clooney our lawyer is well respected here in the Egyptian diplomatic community and will be arriving to Cairo soon.
She had planned to fly from LA to Toronto to meet Fahmy upon his release but she hopes they can fly together out of Cairo toward freedom. The trial date on Feb 12th represents our worst nightmare, to have to go through another circus of a retrial.”
