TORONTO – Actor George Clooney says the Canadian government should do everything they can to free jailed Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy from an Egyptian prison.
His comments came at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday night.
Clooney was at the festival to promote a film he helped produce, “Our Brand Is Crisis,” which deals with attempts to fix a Bolivian election.
His comments came after he was asked what Canadian politicians who are in the midst of a federal election could take from the film.
READ MORE: Harper should take time off campaigning to secure release of Fahmy: NDP, Liberals
Clooney’s wife, Amal Clooney, is one of Fahmy’s lawyers.
Fahmy was given a three-year sentence last month after his second trial on widely denounced terror-related offences.
His ordeal began when he and two colleagues were arrested in December 2013 while working for satellite news broadcaster Al Jazeera English in Cairo.
The trio spent more than a year in prison before an appeal of their convictions resulted in a second trial, although one of them, an Australian, was abruptly deported. Fahmy and his other colleague, an Egyptian, were granted bail during their retrial, which culminated in last month’s surprising verdict.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has said Canadian government officials have raised the case with Egyptian officials “at the highest level.”
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