Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy gives an interview in Cairo on February 14.HASAN MOHAMED/AFP / Getty Images
Canadian officials raised Mohamed Fahmy's case in Cairo and Ottawa this week, amid fears the former Al Jazeera journalist will not be permitted to leave Egypt before his next scheduled court appearance.
Canada's ambassador to Egypt met with that country's public prosecutor on Tuesday, according to an Egyptian government official, marking the second time the two have discussed Mr. Fahmy's case in recent weeks. The following day, Egypt's ambassador to Canada met with senior staff in the Prime Minister's Office, a Canadian government official said.
The meetings come amid growing calls for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to raise the Canadian journalist's case directly with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Mr. Fahmy was released on bail last Friday but is due back in a Cairo court on Feb. 23 for the second hearing in his retrial. His original conviction for "spreading false news" that supported the banned Muslim Brotherhood was thrown out earlier this year.
This week, a group of prominent Canadians put their names to an open letter calling on Mr. Harper to intervene "personally and immediately" in Mr. Fahmy's case. Mr. Fahmy's supporters have called for his deportation to Canada before next Monday's court appearance, saying it is too risky to wait for another court decision.
Asked in the House of Commons on Wednesday if he would phone Egypt's President to discuss the matter, Mr. Harper would only say the government remains concerned and was raising Mr. Fahmy's case with Cairo.
"We have expressed those concerns to the government of Egypt at all levels and we will continue to do so until we get a resolution of this that is satisfactory," he said.
Mr. Fahmy, the former Cairo bureau chief for Al Jazeera's English language network, was first convicted last year along with his Australian colleague, Peter Greste, and Egyptian colleague Baher Mohamed in a trial that was widely denounced as a sham.
Mr. Greste was deported on Feb. 1, under a new presidential decree that allows for the deportation of foreigners who have been accused or convicted of a crime in Egypt. Mr. Fahmy was a dual Canadian and Egyptian citizen at the time of his arrest, but filed paperwork to renounce his Egyptian citizenship in the hopes that would pave the way for him to be deported, as well.
In a recent interview with a British newspaper, Mr. Fahmy suggested phone calls between Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the Egyptian President helped secure Mr. Greste's release, and called on Mr. Harper to do the same for him.
An Egyptian government official said the timing of the retrial came as a surprise and caused the government to rethink its plans to deport Mr. Fahmy under the same presidential decree that was used to free Mr. Greste. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the government does not want to be seen to be interfering in the justice process and would therefore prefer to see Mr. Fahmy acquitted by the court instead.