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Mohamed Fahmy verdict expected Thursday

Mohamed Fahmy listens to his lawyer, Khaled Abou Bakr, during his retrial in a courtroom, of Tora prison, in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, June 1, 2015.
Mohamed Fahmy listens to his lawyer, Khaled Abou Bakr, during his retrial in a courtroom, of Tora prison, in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, June 1, 2015. AP Photo/Amr Nabil

A verdict is expected overnight for a Canadian journalist on trial in Egypt on widely-denounced terror charges.

As Mohamed Fahmy waits to hear his fate in a Cairo court, he says he’s hoping for the best but bracing for the worst.

Fahmy was the Cairo bureau chief for Qatar-based satellite news broadcaster Al Jazeera English when he and two colleagues were arrested in December, 2013.

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READ MORE: Mohamed Fahmy’s lawyer Amal Clooney pens deportation request ahead of verdict

They were charged with a slew of offences, including supporting the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, a banned organization affiliated with ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.

The trio maintained their innocence, but were convicted and sentenced to prison terms.

A successful appeal resulted in a retrial.

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READ MORE: Mohamed Fahmy says he needs Canadian ‘clout’ as retrial verdict nears

Fahmy, who was granted bail in February after more than a year in prison, says his trial is politicized and has called himself a pawn in a diplomatic rift between Egypt and Qatar.

There are a number of possible outcomes for Fahmy — incarceration, a suspended sentence, a sentence that credits him for time already spent in prison, or a not-guilty finding, though he says “it would be naive” to expect one.

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