Collateral Damage

"No one expected this verdict at all. Mohamed, when I saw him last week ... he was extremely optimistic."
It's insane. There is nothing that makes any kind of sense at all. The evidence is insane. It was a very, very heartbreaking scene. We were very optimistic. We never thought this was coming."
"If you compare what Canada has done to what the Australian, English and Dutch have done, it is not much. [Mr. Harper] did not mention Mohammed once."
"We've not got a clear response on why they are not pressuring the Egyptian government, why they are not calling in the Egyptian ambassador. It continues to shock us."
"We've lived in Canada more than in Egypt. Even after we left Canada to start our careers we continued to go back and forth. All of us. We make sure we file our taxes on time. We own an apartment in Montreal [where their parents live]. We're doing everything we are supposed to be doing."
Sherif Fahmy, Egyptian-Canadian businessman, Kuwait

Canadian-Egyptian journalist Mohamed Fahmy gestures from the defendant's cage during a sentencing hearing in a courtroom in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, June 23, 2014. An Egyptian court on Monday convicted three journalists from Al-Jazeera English and sentenced them to seven years in prison each on terrorism-related charges, bringing widespread criticism that the verdict was a blow to freedom of expression. The three, Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohammed 

Two things: Canadian citizenship does confer some guaranteed benefits, even for those who hold dual citizenship. Although the very fact of dual citizenship partially neutralizes the authority that Canada has in looking to uphold the best interests of one of its citizens. And then, there is the incident when then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien appealed directly in 1995 to then-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan for the release of Egyptian-born Ahmed Said Khadr of the infamous al-Qaeda linked Khadr family, a connection only discovered after the fact.

Khadr senior had been arrested for his role in the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. He raised all his sons in the finest tradition of Islamist jihad. The rest is history. And perhaps Canadian reaction is partially to ensure there is no reenactment of that kind of history; allied with that of Syrian-born Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar who was suspected of terrorist links by the United States and rendered to Syria for 'questioning' where he was tortured before being returned to Canada.

Blame the country of origin, and the dual-passport-holder's lack of due diligence for the misfortune that claims his life, not the haven country, if one sees utility in holding dual citizenship and not taking due cautionary self-protective steps in an unsettling theatre of conflict. Three employees of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera English, including Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, who was their Cairo bureau chief at the time of his arrest, were arrested along with two journalist colleagues, an Australian and an Egyptian.


FILE – In this Thursday, May 15, 2014 file photo, from left, Mohammed Fahmy, Canadian-Egyptian acting bureau chief of Al-Jazeera, Australian correspondent Peter Greste, and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed appear in a defendant\’s cage along with several other defendants during their trial on terror charges at a courtroom in Cairo. Egypt’s state news agency says the trial of three Al-Jazeera English journalists and 17 others has adjourned until next week when the judge will deliver the verdict, five months after the trial opened. Fahmy, Greste and Baher have been in detention since December 29.

They were accused by Egyptian authorities attempting to put down a violently threatening insurrection after the removal of elected President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood clique, of being in league with the Brotherhood, and airing video footage that gave a Brotherhood-perspective slant to their coverage. Their arrest has brought their plight to the attention of a world-wide audience, and they have the support of a legion of NGOs dedicated to human rights, as well as journalists' groups.

Mr. Fahmy, 40, has been very vocal in his courtroom appearances over his summary arrest, prison conditions, his health and his prospects for release. He was latterly so certain that he and his colleagues would be released from prison that he pre-wrote a series of tweets he had instructed his younger brother to post on his behalf, in sequential order; among them:

• Thank you Canada. I will be arriving soon for some love. No terrorism plans, I promise :);
• Celebrate my freedom with me/online link to Bob Marley's Jamming;
• Thank you for your militant approach in handling my case. Drop your weapons, party time.

Levity under pressure is healthy for the soul. Shouting out an enraged threat from behind the bars of the prisoner cage: "I swear they will pay for this", sends a somewhat ominous message that could be interpreted as that perhaps there might have been some substance to the accusation against Mr. Fahmy in particular. Al Jazeera is held to be less than neutral by many of the regimes in the Middle East. It does reflect its sponsor Qatar's mission, when it broadcasts in Arabic.

The English-language employees of Al-Jazeera English appear to have presented as a handy tool for revenge. This is quintessential Middle East politics of tribalism pure and simple.

"The only reason these three men are in jail" according to Philip Luther, Amnesty International, director for the Middle East and North Africa, "is because the Egyptian authorities don't like what they have to say. They are prisoners of conscience and must be immediately and unconditionally released. In Egypt today anyone who dares to challenge the state's narrative is considered a legitimate target".

A simplistic accusation to describe a much more loaded and antagonistic reality within the region.