There appears to be increased movement in efforts to free a Canadian-Egyptian journalist who has spent the last year in a Cairo prison on what many observers say are trumped up charges.
Mohamed Fahmy, the former Cairo bureau chief for Al Jazeera, was arrested on Dec. 29, 2013 along with Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed.
After a trial that international observers denounced as a sham, Fahmy, 40, was sentenced to seven years in prison for supporting the banned Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group of ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi and with fabricating footage to undermine Egypt’s national security.
Mr. Greste were sentenced to seven years in prison. Mr. Mohamed was
sentenced to 10 years.
The journalists deny the charges, saying they were just doing
their jobs.
On Tuesday, Canadian officials said Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird will travel to Egypt in January to further push for Mr. Fahmy’s release.
Supporters of Mr. Fahmy say Canada has not been doing enough to win his freedom.
Foreign Affairs says it has pursued a quiet approach and is “actively engaged” in winning his release, noting that Mr. Baird has met twice with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, in the last month, most recently in Bahrain.
On Monday, Mr. Baird met with Egypt’s ambassador to Canada to discuss the matter.
Mr. Fahmy’s parents moved to Canada from Egypt in 1991 when he was a child. He became a Canadian citizen with them.
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