Canada says 'disappointed' about Egypt court ruling in journalist case
The Canadian government says it is "disappointed" after an Egyptian appeals court sentenced Mohammed Fahmy, a naturalized Canadian working for Al Jazeera news network, to prison.
"The government of Canada continues to call on the Egyptian government to use all tools at its disposal to resolve Mr. Fahmy's case and allow his immediate return to Canada," said Lynne Yelich, Canada's minister of state for foreign affairs.
Yelich warned Cairo that the decision "severely undermines confidence in the rule of law in Egypt."
Fahmy, along with two other employees of the Qatari news agency, Al Jazeera, have each been sentenced to three years in prison by the Egyptian retrial Judge Hassan Farid.
The trio were arrested on December 29, 2013 and charged with supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and fabricating news and footage that threatened the Egyptian national security.
The Egyptian-born award-winning journalist and writer, Fahmy, who worked as the Arab agency’s international bureau chief in Egypt, denied all the charges against him, and claimed that he was just doing his job as a journalist.
The two other Al Jazeera employees, Peter Greste, who is Latvian-Australian, and Baher Mohammad, also an Egyptian, followed suit, maintaining their innocence.
On June 23, 2014, Fahmy and his colleagues were found guilty by a Cairo criminal court and sentenced to seven years in prison.
The trio then filed for the appeal.
The two Egyptians were released on bail in February. However, they were not permitted to leave the country. In the same month, Greste was deported in accordance with an extradition agreement and returned to Australia.
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