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He Had To Choose Between His Egyptian Nationality And Freedom. He Chose Freedom.

February 3, 2015

Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, a Canadian-Egyptian journalist who has been in jail for more than 400 days, has renounced his Egyptian nationality, paving the way for his deportation, said Fahmy’s family.

“It was a very difficult decision. Mohamed is very proud and comes from a patriotic family of high ranking military and policemen that have defended this country and fought its wars,” said Adel Fahmy, Mohamed Fadel Fahmy’s brother.

According to Adel, many family members are offended by the decision and have refused to support the Al-Jazeera journalist’s decision. However, his fiancee and mother have stood firmly by the journalist.

The decision to renounce citizenship has paved the way for his “imminent” release, reported Canada’s CTV and CBC. Earlier this week, Canada’s Foreign John Baird had said Fahmy’s release was imminent, but gave no further details.

In November 2014, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi signed a decree allowing the deportation of foreign nationals charged with crimes in Egypt.

Peter Greste, who had been sentenced to seven years in jail before a court accepted his appeal request, was deported under this law. Fahmy’s family explain that it is for this reason that the journalist was ‘forced’ to renounce his citizenship.

Meanwhile, the fate of the third Al-Jazeera journalist in prison, Baher Mohamed, remains unclear. Baher has no other citizenship and so the deportation law does not apply to him.

In his first interview since his release, Greste said Baher’s situation was worrying.

“Baher is one of the most amazing family men I have ever met. If anyone has suffered out of all of this, it is Baher,” said Greste.

“He has a wife and three children, one of whom was born while he was prison…We need to keep the focus on him and we don’t quite know what’s going to happen from here on.”

Comments (16)

  1. Eriny (Rina) Abraham says:

    lol difficult decision? what patriotism does he owe to a country that betrayed him first? egypt didn’t consider him a citizen. he was their prisoner. this isn’t ‘renouncing’ anything to be proud of. this is called being saved. whoever is delusional enough to be offended by this should go enjoy their egyptian citizenship where he enjoyed his.

    1. Moustafa Youssef says:

      do we have to consider a ” spy ” a ” citizen ” ?
      when edward snowden leaked informations , the west considered him as a spy , but now it’s freedom of press !

    2. genadel says:

      The Al Jazeera Journalists were not spy’s. I do not think that pictures of holidays, Gyote songs and irrelevant documentaries in Kenya prove anything but the Egyptian justice system is a JOKE. We will see what happens with Al Jazeera in Egypt now that Saudi and Qatar are friends again

    3. Minymina says:

      Look up “fake muslim brotherhood protests”. They were responsible for that. They staged protests, photographed and filmed them and posted it as news. In the process, threatening and risking our national security and economy. Not to mention the fact that they sympathised with the MB, an organisation labeled a terrorist group in Egypt and many other countries. That is the equivalent of CNN supporting Al-Qaeda.

      You are a stupid motherfucker to believe Egyptian officials would just arrest three journalists for no fucking reason. Research your shit.

    4. passingby says:

      They had a great reason, but it wasn’t because they were actually engaging in the crimes they were accused of. The government wanted to make it clear to everybody that if you don’t report on what they want you to say, you are going to jail. And for a long time.

    5. Minymina says:

      If that’s the case, then please explain to me why the likes of CNN and BBC journalists haven’t been arrested yet?

    6. Minymina says:

      Hypocrisy dude. What more can I say. These politically correct morons are as stupid as a fucking rock.

    7. Moustafa Youssef says:

      At least each western country don’t deport foreigners back until they finish their penalty , now Egypt is a dictatorship ! i really hate the west ambivalence

  2. Youssef Hosny Mubarak says:

    most of them have double-nationality !!

    1. suhasjs says:

      Please explain what you mean by “most pf them”.
      What what I see, only one of the three Al Jazeera journalist had dual citizenship.

    2. Anne Abercrombie says:

      two of them have dual citizenship I think.

    3. suhasjs says:

      Actually, one is an Australian citizen, one is an Egyptian. Only one had dual citizenship – Egyptian as well as Canadian.

    4. passingby says:

      Don’t forget there were also a number of them tried and convicted in absentia.

    5. Minymina says:

      None the less, two of them had foreign citizenship.