A pro-government columnist has urged Egypt’s presidency to release and deport al-Jazeera English’s Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, also ridiculing comments made by his lawyer Amal Clooney.
Clooney, a British lawyer from Doughty Street Chambers and the wife of Hollywood star George Clooney, has criticized the Canadian government over the failure to ensure the release of Fahmy who has been in detention for more than a year over charges of the unlicensed practice of disseminating false news and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. She announced on Friday her plans to head to Egypt and ensure Fahmy’s release.
“Take this. British lawyer Amal Clooney is preparing to head to Cairo to pressure for Fahmy’s release. Clooney is going to pressure, wow, enough pressure, lady,” wrote Hamdy Rizq in his Al-Masry Al-Youmcolumn on Saturday. Rizq is a fervent supporter of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government, but wants an end to the Fahmy case.
“We are fed up with Egypt’s image being tarnished at all international venues; the worthless are pressuring Egypt, and even Clooney is pressuring us with her tender hands,” Rizq wrote.
Rizq urged Egypt’s presidency to hasten with Fahmy’s release, noting that “political wisdom” requires journalists be immediately deported.
“Keeping Fahmy in detention is a political disadvantage that we do not need,” Rizq wrote, addressing the president.
Fahmy renounced his Egyptian citizenship to tap into a recently approved law that allows foreign defendants to be deported, but he remains in custody pending a retrial in the case in which he had initially received a seven-year term. His Australian colleague, Peter Greste, was sent home in accordance with the decree.
