TORONTO – A Canadian journalist who spent almost two years jailed in Egypt said Friday that Egyptian authorities have restored the citizenship he renounced in order to win his release.
Mohamed Fahmy, a former Al-Jazeera journalist released last year after receiving a pardon from Egypt’s president, was a dual citizen but renounced his Egyptian citizenship late in 2014 after being asked to do as a condition of his release.
He says he never wanted to do that.
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Fahmy was arrested in 2013 with two Al-Jazeera English colleagues.
In a case that was widely condemned, he was sentenced to three years in prison in a retrial for airing what a court described as “false news” and coverage biased in favour of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Fahmy said he called government officials and they confirmed he has his citizenship back.
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