Journalist released from prison in Egypt returns to Canada
Mohamed Fahmy, a former Al-Jazeera journalist who was released from prison in Egypt last month, has returned home to Canada with the hope of starting an election debate on how the Canadian government can better protects its citizens abroad.
Fahmy told The Associated Press that he arrived in Toronto quietly with his wife on Sunday. He said he had long imagined in prison the moment he would return.
His arrival ends a nearly two-year ordeal that raised questions about Egypt's commitment to free speech and whether Canada's Conservative government did enough to help him.
Fahmy was arrested in 2013 with two Al-Jazeera English colleagues. He was sentenced to three years in prison in a retrial 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 and others. He and his Egyptian co-defendant received a presidential pardon last month.
