Journalist released from prison in Egypt leaves country

Mohamed Fahmy received 3-year sentence for purportedly airing ‘false news’ favoring banned Muslim Brotherhood

By Merrit Kennedy 7 October 2015, 3:36 am

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In this Thursday, June 4, 2015 file photo, Canadian Al-Jazeera English journalist Mohamed Fahmy, left, and his Egyptian colleague Baher Mohammed listen in a courtroom in Tora prison in Cairo, Egypt. (AP/Amr Nabil)

CAIRO (AP) — Mohamed Fahmy, a journalist who was released from prison in Egypt last month, posted on social media that he left the country Tuesday.

Fahmy posted a photo on his Twitter account of the Canadian ambassador escorting him to the gate at Cairo airport, calling it “a glorious end to our battle for freedom.” He had posted a day earlier that his name had been removed from a government no-fly list.

Fahmy’s departure ends his nearly two-year ordeal in a case that raised questions about Egypt’s commitment to democracy and free speech.

He was arrested in December 2013 with two other al-Jazeera English colleagues and sentenced to three years in prison in a retrial earlier this year for airing what a court described as “false news” and coverage biased in favor of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood. The case was widely condemned by rights groups. He and his colleague Baher Mohammed received a presidential pardon last month.

Fahmy gave up his Egyptian citizenship during the trial in hopes of being deported to Canada. But in an open letter to Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi published last month in a Cairo daily, he appealed for the restoration of his citizenship, saying he relinquished it under duress.