Al Jazeera reporter Mohamed Fahmy said at the retrial of the “Marriott Cell” case on Thursday that a senior security official requested him in prison relinquish his Egyptian nationality and get deported because the government wants to end this “nightmare” of a case, which he refused at first.
He then said that the same official called him and told him that citizenship is in the heart and not on paper and that he regrets relinquishing his nationality.
Fahmy, who holds the Canadian citizenship, wondered why the other defendant, the Australian journalist Peter Greste, was released and deported. “We want equal treatment,” he said.
Fahmy was released on Thursday on a LE250,000 bail, along with fellow Al Jazeera journalist, Baher Mohamed. The two were the last Al Jazeera journalists arrested in the case the Egyptian media referred to as the Marriott Cell.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
