Ottawa: Ottawa’s top diplomat said on Tuesday he is close to reaching a deal with Egypt on deporting to Canada one of three imprisoned Al Jazeera journalists.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said he was working to free Egyptian-Canadian Mohammad Fahmy.
“We’ve been working closely at senior levels of the Egyptian government,” he said.
The diplomacy is at a “critical phase,” said Baird, who is scheduled to make an official visit to Egypt later this month.
Fahmy and two other Al Jazeera journalists — Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohammad — were detained in December 2013 for spreading false information and accused of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.
Fahmy’s brother said a request has been submitted to have him deported from Egypt under a new law signed by President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi.
Greste’s lawyer has said he submitted a similar request, while Mohammad’s wife said she also was looking at ways to get her husband out of Egypt.
At trial Greste and Fahmy each got seven years, and Mohammad was jailed for ten. Their supporters say the charges were politically motivated.
Egypt’s top court ordered a retrial in the case last Thursday.
Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Wednesday that Australia was engaging daily with the Egyptian government “at the highest level” to bring home jailed Al Jazeera journalist Greste.
“Both the Foreign Minister of Canada and I have been making representations on behalf of our respective citizens and I have been engaged with the Foreign Minister of Egypt for quite some time,” Bishop told reporters.
She said she could not say when Greste might return to Australia, but added that “we’re certainly engaged on a daily basis with the Egyptian government at the highest levels”.
