Canadian FM in Cairo: Release of Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy on the agenda

CAIRO – Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird arrived in Cairo Tuesday evening on an official visit, during which he will hold talks with Egyptian officials.

Baird is expected to head for Luxor city in Upper Egypt for a one-day visit, after which he will return to Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials.

The top Canadian diplomat is said to have come to Cairo to press for the release of jailed Egyptian-Canadian Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy.

Other issues will be on the table, including security and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group, Canadian media reported.

Egypt sparked global outrage when Fahmy and fellow Al-Jazeera journalists Peter Greste and Baher Mohammed were jailed for seven to ten years for “falsifying news” and belonging to or assisting the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Baird has been working for months behind the diplomatic scenes to try get Fahmy released, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

And it looks like the efforts will pay off – Marwa Omara, Fahmy’s fiancé, told the Canadian Press that Egypt was preparing Fahmy’s deportation order and it was “in its final stages.”

An Egyptian law passed last November allows foreign convicts or suspects to be sent back to their home countries to be tried or to serve out their sentences.

The three journalists were arrested in December 2013.

An Egyptian court on Jan. 1 overturned their initial seven- to 10-year sentences and granted the trio a retrial. No bail was granted, however, nor has there been a new trial date set.