CAIRO — An Egyptian court postponed announcing a verdict in the much criticized case of Mohamed Fahmy once again on Sunday — a move the Canadian journalist described as "crippling."
The delaying of the verdict to Aug. 29 marks the latest of several postponements in the long-running legal saga that has been denounced by press freedom advocates and human rights activists.
"It's crippling our lives," a frustrated Fahmy said of the postponement.
Fahmy spent more than a year in prison before a successful appeal of an earlier conviction resulted in his current retrial.
The 41-year-old's troubles began in December 2013 when he was working as the Cairo bureau chief for Qatar-based satellite news broadcaster Al Jazeera English.
Fahmy, Australian journalist Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohammed were detained and charged with a slew of offences, including supporting the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, a banned organization affiliated with ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, and with fabricating footage to undermine the country's national security.
After a trial which was decried as a sham, they were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms before their appeal led to a fresh trial being ordered.
Greste was suddenly allowed to leave Egypt before their retrial began, under a law which allows for the deportation of foreign nationals convicted of crimes.
Fahmy gave up his dual Egyptian citizenship while behind bars in the hopes that he could follow the same path, but that didn't happen. He was, however, granted bail in February shortly after his second trial got underway.
Fahmy's brother, Adel, told The Canadian Press from Cairo that Sunday's latest postponement of the verdict has added to the suffering of not only his brother, but the entire family.
"I know he's suffering very much, and not able to sleep well, or eat well. And now he has a teaching job at UBC in British Columbia starting in September and you know his whole life, and ours, has been crippled," he said.
Adel Fahmy said no official reason was given for the postponement — that the judge who usually presides over the case didn't show up and that another judge came in and simply announced, without explanation, that the verdict had again been delayed.
Fahmy's high-profile lawyer Amal Clooney noted that the postponement of Fahmy's verdict now meant it would be delivered after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry wrapped a visit to Egypt, and after the country celebrated the opening of a new Suez Canal waterway
"The verdict may be coming later; but the world will still be watching," she said. "In a case where even Egypt’s Supreme Court (and the Supreme Court prosecutor) have admitted that there is no evidence to support the charges, the only just conclusion that can be reached by the judges is a full acquittal."
If Fahmy wasn't acquitted, Clooney said Egypt's president must "promptly intervene to rectify this injustice."
Throughout the proceedings Fahmy has pointed out that his case had been complicated by politics in the Middle East, referring to himself as a "pawn" in a rift between Egypt and Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera.
Egypt and Qatar have had tense relations since 2013, when the Egyptian military ousted Morsi amid massive protests.
Qatar is a strong backer of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and Cairo accuses Al Jazeera of being a mouthpiece for Morsi's supporters — charges denied by the broadcaster.
The Canadian government has said it has raised Fahmy's case with Egyptian officials "at the highest level" and called for his immediate return to Canada ahead of Thursday's verdict.
Fahmy moved to Canada with his family in 1991, living in Montreal and Vancouver for years before eventually moving abroad for work, which included covering stories for the New York Times and CNN.
