Policemen accompany Canadian Al-Jazeera English journalist Mohammed Fahmy during his retrial at a courtroom in Tora prison in Cairo, Egypt.Amr Nabil/The Associated Press
Mohamed Fahmy's long-running legal battle is about to hit its climax.
A Cairo court is expected to deliver a verdict Thursday for the Canadian journalist being tried on widely denounced terror charges and as the day approaches, Mr. Fahmy is hoping for the best but bracing for the worst.
"In order to survive I have to think positively," he said. "But the uncertainty is just horrible."
Mr. 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.
They were charged with a slew of offences, including supporting the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, a banned organization affiliated with ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, and with fabricating footage to undermine the country's national security.
The trio maintained their innocence, saying they were just doing their jobs, but after a trial which was internationally decried as a sham, they were convicted and sentenced to prison terms. A successful appeal resulted in a retrial which is set to end this week.
Mr. Fahmy, who was granted bail in February after more than a year in prison, is fervently hoping for a verdict that won't send him back to prison, but notes that his case is complicated.
"As much as we know we are completely innocent, we also know this trial is politicized and that factors other than evidence are going to be game changers," he said. "I am a pawn in Egypt and Qatar's rift."
Egypt and Qatar have had tense relations since 2013, when the Egyptian military ousted Morsi amid massive protests. Qatar is a strong backer of Mr. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and Cairo accuses the state-owned Al Jazeera of being a mouthpiece for Mr. Morsi's supporters – charges denied by the broadcaster.
Mr. Fahmy said there are a number of possible outcomes for him on Thursday – incarceration, a suspended sentence, a sentence that credits him for time already spent in prison, or a not-guilty finding, though he said "it would be naive" to expect one.
In his favour is the fact that a technical committee tasked with examining work by him and his colleagues found there had been no fabrication in their reporting. Fahmy also hopes his legal team convinced the judge that he and his colleagues had nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood.
But evidence that Al Jazeera didn't have the necessary licences for its journalists in Egypt – something which led Mr. Fahmy to launch a lawsuit against the broadcaster – is extremely worrisome, he said.
"I explained to the judge that we had no clue," Mr. Fahmy said. "I told the judge he should separate between the responsibilities of the journalists and the responsibilities of the network."
The Canadian government's support for Mr. Fahmy had been called into question after one of his co-accused – Australian Peter Greste – was allowed to leave Egypt under a law which allows for the deportation of foreign nationals convicted of crimes.
Mr. Fahmy gave up his dual Egyptian citizenship while behind bars in the hopes that he could follow the same path, but that didn't happen.
"I feel that the Canadian government and my lawyers this time around have a very solid plan and strategy," he said, adding that Ottawa has agreed to endorse a deportation request and a pardon request prepared by his lawyers in case he's ordered back to prison.