TORONTO — A number of prominent Canadians are calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to intervene "personally and immediately" in the case of a Canadian journalist on trial in Egypt.
Mohamed Fahmy was released on bail last Friday after spending more than a year in a Cairo prison, but he is set to return to court next week for the continuation of his retrial on terror-related charges that his family has called ridiculous.
A letter signed by 250 people — including comedian Rick Mercer, author Michael Ondaatje and diplomat Stephen Lewis — urges Harper to press his Egyptian counterpart on Fahmy's case.
Specifically, the letter calls for the prime minister to ask that Fahmy be allowed to leave Egypt under a new law that allows foreigners convicted or accused of crimes to be deported.
When Harper was asked by reporters last week if he had spoken directly to the Egyptian president about Fahmy, he would only say the Canadian government has been in contact with Egyptian authorities at all levels, including his level.
Fahmy and his family have criticized the Canadian government for what they seek as a lack of adequate action on the case, particularly after Fahmy's Australian colleague was deported from Egypt two weeks ago.
In an interview with the British newspaper The Independent, Fahmy has said it was the "geo-political score-settling" among Middle Eastern countries that put him and his two Al Jazeera English colleagues — Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohamed — behind bars.
But Fahmy has also said he blames Canada, particularly Harper and former foreign affairs minister John Baird, for failing to win his freedom.
Fahmy and his colleagues were arrested in December 2013.
