Egypt to free another Al Jazeera journalist

Mohamed Fahmy

Egypt could free Canadian-Egyptian journalist Mohamed Fahmy within hours, Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera English reported yesterday.
Al Jazeera said that Fahmy had renounced his Egyptian citizenship, in a move that paves the way for him to be deported under a presidential decree. Fahmy also has Canadian citizenship.
Fahmy's colleague, Peter Greste, an Australian citizen, was released on Sunday. A third journalist, Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian national, is still in prison in Cairo.
The news came after Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said that Fahmy's release was "imminent" following the freeing of Greste.
Fahmy and Greste were arrested in December 2013 along with Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed, and later sentenced to up to 10 years in prison on charges of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.
Their jailing sparked a global outcry and proved a public relations nightmare for Sisi, who has cracked down on Islamists since toppling president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
A security source said on Sunday that Fahmy was expected to be released and deported to Canada within days.
Egyptian authorities accuse Qatar-based al Jazeera of being a mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Qatari-backed movement which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled in 2013 when he was Egypt's army chief.