'What about Baher?' asks father of detained Egypt reporter

Australian Al Jazeera correspondent Peter Greste has walked free from Cairo's Tora prison and Canadian journalist Mohammed Fahmy will by all accounts soon do the same, but little hope remains for their Egyptian colleague Baher Mohamed, a state of affairs his family say is “a disgrace”.

Despite having been sentenced together with Greste and Fahmy and on the same charges, Mohamed is currently ineligible for deportation under the law used to release Greste purely because he is an Egyptian citizen with no dual nationality.

“This is a disgrace that Egypt has never seen in its long history and I feel deeply sorry and ashamed,” Mohamed's father, Hazem Mohamed, told Middle East Eye.

“The youth of Egypt should not feel ashamed of their nationality and have to step on it to gain release from prison,” he said commenting on the fact that Fahmy was faced with the dilemma of remaining in jail or renouncing his Egyptian citizenship.

The Al Jazeera three were all arrested on 29 December, 2013 and sentenced last June on charges of being members of a terrorist organisation, aiding a terrorist organisation and spreading false news. The Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organisation by the Egyptian government on 25 December, 2013.

Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years imprisonment, while Mohamed was sentenced to an additional three years because a bullet casing he had picked up off the street was found on him upon his arrest. Greste spent 400 days imprisoned in Egypt before his release on 1 February; Fahmy and Mohamed have now exceeded that number.

Mohamed's father said that while he was happy that Greste had been released, and happy to hear that Fahmy may also soon be deported, the fact that his son will for now remain behind bars tarnishes the Egyptian government's reputation.

Egyptian authorities recently told Fahmy that in order to be eligible for deportation he would have to renounce his Egyptian nationality, a decision Fahmy took on 25 December.

“Of course I do not blame Mohammed Fahmy at all for doing what he has done to be released – the disgrace is for those who forced an innocent person to give up his nationality,” Hazem said.

“Egyptian nationality has now become something the youth of our people want to get rid of. The nationality itself has become a prison for them and just for being Egyptian they are forced to stay in jail while others go free.”

Baher Mohamed has a wife and three children, the youngest of whom he has not yet seen as he was born while Mohamed was imprisoned.

In January Egypt's Court of Cassation upheld an appeal launched by the imprisoned journalists against their conviction and ordered a retrial, but no date has yet been set for the proceedings.

“It's more than a month since a re-trial was ordered and there is still no sign of when the retrial will start; we've heard nothing,” said Mohamed's father.

Mohamed said he believes what happened to all of the journalists was an unacceptable embarrassment. “Peter Greste was a guest in this country and should have been treated with respect not arrested – I personally expressed to his parents how sorry I am as an Egyptian for what happened to him,” he told MEE.

“But I believe that the releases should have included all of them, especially Baher, and not excluded him on the basis of his citizenship – he is innocent.”