After more than a year in prison, Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, 40, is to be retried on terror charges Thursday in Cairo, despite an Egyptian appeal court ruling he never should have been charged with terror crimes in the first place.
“He’s in shock after the news of a retrial,†said his fiancée, Marwa Omara.
“They will be in a glass cage so they will not be able to communicate to anyone,†she said of the courtroom. “It’s so humiliating.â€
His health is “deteriorating,†she said, with untreated hepatitis C, an infectious liver disease contracted before his arrest, and a permanently disabled shoulder, which he injured falling down stairs while working, and aggravated by sleeping on the floor in the terror wing of Cairo’s notorious Tora Prison. Ms. Omara visits him once a week.
Mr. Fahmy was elated when Egypt signalled 10 days ago he would be deported to Toronto, said Ms. Omara, who had packed her bags and quit her telecommunications job in anticipation of going to Canada. “We had confidence that the Canadian embassy and Canadian government were doing everything they can, but we found out that nothing was done.â€
Born in Kuwait in 1974, Mr. Fahmy has reported from across the Middle East. He met Ms. Omara at a friend’s Christmas party in 2011 in Cairo, when he was working for CNN, and had just published his book on the Arab Spring and Egypt’s revolution on Jan. 25, 2011, The Egyptian Freedom Story.
“I was impressed with his character,†she said. “You know, he’s a journalist. I accepted the risk of dating a journalist. He was always so passionate about his job and about journalism.â€
As Cairo bureau chief for Al Jazeera English, he was arrested in 2013 with colleagues Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed over their coverage of the crackdown on Islamist protests following the military overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi. They are known as the “Marriott Cell,†for their base in a Cairo hotel, and Mr. Fahmy has used this as the title of a book.
Egyptian authorities accuse them of providing a platform for Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, now declared a terrorist organization. Convictions followed in what Amal Clooney, Mr. Fahmy’s lawyer, has called a “show trial.†All were sentenced to seven years, and Mr. Mohamed received an additional three years for his possession of a spent bullet.
“The last week has been quite extraordinary,†said Troy Lulashnyk, Canada’s Ambassador to Egypt, in a CTV interview, in which he promised to “personally observe the retrial.â€
“It is clear they are trying to find a solution consonant with their legal system, and we urge them to do this expeditiously, as was done in the case of the Australian ,†he said. Harsh words will not be enough, he said. “I don’t think it’s a question of rhetoric.â€
The question of who speaks is a key one, though.
“Prime Minister
A law passed last year by Mr. Sisi, seen as a pretext for resolving this case, allows for the deportation of foreigners charged or convicted of security offences, and so Mr. Greste, a Latvian-Australian, was easy to put on a plane to Cyprus and freedom. Mr. Mohamed, an Egyptian, is not.
Today, Mr. Fahmy illustrates this problem, because it would be hard to justify Mr. Mohamed’s continued detention, given Mr. Fahmy was the bureau chief.
“I’m furious of course, it’s such a painful thing this discrimination between the foreigners and the Egyptians,†Mr. Mohamed’s wife, Jihan, told The Guardian. “The manipulation of the law shows that Baher is innocent.â€
Egypt’s Court of Cassation broadly supports this interpretation. In newly released reasons for the Jan. 1 ruling, which ordered the retrial, Judge Anwar Gabry said the three men should never have been charged under the terrow law as they had committed no violence. He also said the trial failed to inquire into claims of testimony under duress, and the appeal court is “unable to show how right or wrong the verdict is.â€
As a result, the retrial judge may dismiss the case outright, so the resolution is legal rather than diplomatic. Perhaps Mr. Sisi can or will influence this, perhaps not. Likewise, at a greater distance, Mr. Harper. Likewise, even, Vladimir Putin, who was in Cairo this week, the first major leader to visit since the coup that brought Mr. Sisi to office. He at least has influence over Mr. Sisi and a motivation to embarrass Mr. Harper before the world, as payback for his public scolding over Ukraine last year at the G20.
“Most of the time, what seems to be a conspiracy turns out not to be one,†said Aurel Braun, an expert in Russian and Middle Eastern politics at the University of Toronto. “Other times, there is a conspiracy. I would be skeptical, but we don’t know for sure.â€
Mr. Putin has caused many problems, Mr. Braun said, and Mr. Sisi is “no democrat.†But the Muslim Brotherhood is an “incorrigible, unreformable†threat. And Al Jazeera English’s Qatar-based parent network has been a booster of it, and a vicious critic of Mr. Sisi, reflecting conflict between the Egyptian and Qatari governments.
“It will be extremely embarrassing for Canada to keep a Canadian citizen in prison and accept it,†Ms. Omara said.
National Post
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