Release of Al Jazeera's Mohamed Fahmy 'imminent': Canada FM

The release of jailed Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy is ‘imminent’, Canada’s foreign minister says.

A spokesman for John Baird confirmed the statement, AFP news agency reported on Monday.

The spokesman said Canadian diplomats met with their counterparts in Cairo to press for the release of Fahmy, who served as Al Jazeera's Cairo bureau chief at the time of his arrest in 2013.

"We welcome these positive developments," Baird's office said in a statement. "We remain very hopeful that Mr Fahmy's case will be resolved shortly."

On Sunday, Reuters news agency reported that an Egyptian security official said Fahmy was expected to be released within days.

Meanwhile, CBC News reported Tuesday that Fahmy’s fiancee, Marwa Omara, said he has given up his Egyptian citizenship in the hope that it will get him released from prison.

Omara said Egyptian authorities essentially made freedom for Fahmy conditional on doing so.

She told The Canadian Press that it was a very difficult decision for Fahmy because he is a "proud Egyptian who comes from a family of military servicemen."

She says authorities have told him he can return as a tourist.

Colleague released

The news comes a day after Fahmy’s Al Jazeera colleague, Peter Greste, was freed from prison and deported to his native Australia.

In the first interview since his release, Greste urged the Egyptian authorities to release his colleagues. “I feel incredible angst about my colleagues, leaving them behind,” he said.

"Amidst all this relief, I still feel a sense of concern and worry. If it's appropriate for me to be free, it's right for all of them to be freed," Greste added.

Fahmy, Greste and producer Baher Mohamed were sentenced to between seven and 10 years in prison for allegedly spreading false news and colluding with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Human rights groups and international observers decried the journalists’ trial and sentence, and urged Egypt to release them immediately.

Fahmy and Mohamed have now been imprisoned for more than 400 days.

Diplomatic efforts

Canada's John Baird was in Egypt in January, where he raised the issue of Fahmy's imprisonment with local officials.“We have had good discussions with the government on this case, and we are working toward seeing a constructive resolution,” the foreign minister said.

In January, an Egyptian court ordered a retrial in the case. A presidential decree passed last year, however, allows for the transfer of foreign detainees to their home countries under the pretext of national security.

A dual Canadian and Egyptian national, rumours swirled on Sunday that Fahmy would be renouncing his Egyptian citizenship in order to be released under the clause.

On Sunday, Fahmy’s mother published an open letter calling on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to pardon her son.

“Today, I genuinely hope you can stand beside me, the mother of an innocent man who has spent 400 days in prison. I hope you can use your constitutional rights for humanitarian intervention in order to save an ailing man, my son,” Wafa Abdel Hamid Bassiouni wrote.