Mohamed Fahmy – The Concordian

The award-winning Canadian journalist talks prison life and press freedom

Mohamed Fahmy was in Montreal on Thursday for Concordia’s homecoming key lecture series as a speaker. The Concordian had the chance to interview the award-winning journalist who has worked for media outlets such as CNN, the BBC and Al-Jazeera.

A little over a year ago, Fahmy was released from prison in Cairo, Egypt. He, along with two of his colleagues at Al-Jazeera, were accused of being terrorists. The journalists were arrested in December 2013, found guilty in June 2014, and were incarcerated for over 400 days. In 2015, following his release, Fahmy started the Fahmy Foundation alongside his wife, with the goal of fighting the suppression of the press. Now, he is ready to get back into journalism.

The Concordian: In an interview with the CBC, you said the Canadian government could have done more to help you get out of jail. How did they help you back then, and has their process changed at all since? Are they able to better serve Canadian journalists in these situations now?

Mohamed Fahmy: Once I landed in Canada, I thanked the councillors and ambassadors for doing such a great job. I felt they were shackled, with Ottawa’s conservative approach then. When I came out of prison on bail, so many Canadian people were already criticizing the government, which I felt ministers were delegating their responsibilities to junior ministers. I was very open in my constructive critique, calling the government to take a more direct stance. The government said that quiet diplomacy worked better— I felt they should be using quiet diplomacy, and also, carpet bombing diplomacy.

For this exact reason, we started the hashtag campaign #HarperCallEgypt on Twitter which was very successful. I believe that after, the government had a more aggressive approach to my situation. Having said that, with the government today, I believe they are much, much more engaged internationally and they are very responsive to urgent calls from worried families. We were able to bring back Kevin Garratt from China after two years, after unfair accusations and detention that were unfounded. The Liberal government was also able to bring back Khaled Al-Qazzaz, a permanent resident in Canada, who was released after two years. I do feel that the liberal government has been responsive. I presented my protection charter in Ottawa that I’ve written with Amnesty International. We partnered together and presented the charter to the Liberal government with one of the main goals of the charter [being] to improve councillors’ services for Canadians abroad with better protection.

TC: It must be hard to get into, but what was it like adjusting to life in prison? What was the greatest difficulty?

Fahmy: Fortunately for me, I was not tortured in any way but the prison conditions at the Scorpion Prison were a psychological torture. I was in a terrorist wing with members from Al Qaeda, ISIS and extremists, with maximum security. I was living in solitary confinement with a broken shoulder and no bed. The situation got better with the support from Canadians and the diplomatic armies across the world. It became obvious that it wasn’t about the three of us anymore, but the value of the press freedom and what it meant to a true democratic society.

Also, your mind is your most dangerous enemy at that time, and keeping your mental, spiritual and physical sides intact and balanced is very important. That’s why I keep telling people that even if they are an ocean away, they can still support innocent prisoners on the other side of the world. It may sound small, but signing petitions, rallying and involving the media is extremely important for the sake of each people abroad. For example, my lawyer used these petitions in court to convince the judge that I had a whole continent behind me and that I was not a terrorist. Also, to add, my family and the guards were telling me that there were hundreds of people supporting me outside, which helped me not to give up.

TC: What was the hardest part about writing your new book The Marriott Cell: An Epic Journey from Cairo’s Scorpion Prison to Freedom?

Fahmy: The hardest part was revisiting the solitary confinement, the unfair trial and the televised arrest. We interviewed prisoners during my time there, which I included in the book. I explained what Amal Clooney, my lawyer, was doing for the case and how my wife was smuggling notes in and out of the prison. I also wrote about my return to Canada and how we take freedom for granted as Canadians.

TC: What advice would you give people in a similar situation?

Fahmy: The advice I would give to their families is that they should continue to engage with the media in order to humanize the stories of their loved ones, and to continue to keep the attention on them. They should take advantage of all the strategies that they can.

TC: After the process you went through to renounce your Egyptian citizenship, why would you want to get it again?

Fahmy: After returning to Canada, I applied for my citizenship again through my lawyers. After six months, I finally got it back. It was very important to me because, in a way, it was like the Egyptian government was giving me vindication. It was important for me to get it and get out of this experience with the least political and professional damages as possible. I did not do anything wrong, and I would like to report the news one day there again in the future.

TC: How have your views on journalism changed since your release?

Fahmy: I am now more convinced than ever that what we do, as journalists, is extremely important. It helps people who are oppressed. Our task definitely makes the world a better place—what we do is an honourable mission, and I will continue to do so and soon engage in a new journalistic opportunity.

Award-winning journalist talks about his experience in prison and calls for the university to support Homa Hoodfar

Concordia University welcomed Egyptian-born Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy as a lecturer for the first in a series of homecoming lectures at the Sir George Williams campus on Sept. 22.

Just over one year ago, Fahmy was released from prison in Cairo, Egypt. He, along with two of his colleagues, were accused of being terrorists, he said. They were arrested in December 2013, and found guilty in June 2014, staying incarcerated for over 400 days. Fahmy also spent six weeks in solitary confinement.

To a full house at the D.B. Clarke theatre, Fahmy spoke about his experience in prison and his campaign to free other journalists in similar situations.

Fahmy detailed his experience working at various news stations prior to his arrest—namely CNN, the BBC, and Al-Jazeera, where he worked as an English bureau chief in Cairo.

“I knew it was going to be a challenge when I took the [Al-Jazeera] job,” he said. “My last story, before going to prison, was on the branding of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.”

Three days later, there was a knock on his hotel door and security forces stormed in. He was falsely accused by the Egyptian government of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood—a banned organization.

“My prison neighbors were members of Al Qaeda, ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood—as a journalist, I was in heaven,” he said jokingly. The audience laughed.

During the conference, Fahmy was interviewed by Paul Karwastsky. Photo by Cristina Sanza.

To occupy their time in prison, the jailed journalists conducted interviews with the different members of these organizations. “We would interview them on their political views, and in return they would do the same,” said Fahmy.

Fahmy got tons of support from not only his family, but from the Canadian press and via social media, which all lead to his release. “It was unbelievable to see the Canadian press uniting under this one cause,” Fahmy recalled. He said social media played an important role in raising awareness and getting Canadians involved. Throughout his time in prison, his family started a crowdfunding campaign where he was able to raise $40,000. With the money, Fahmy was able to pay the bills for his lawyers.

Despite the gravity of his situation, Fahmy did not lose hope and managed to stay positive. He said he read Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, a chronicle of the author’s experiences as an inmate at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the second world war. This book taught Fahmy the concept of tragic optimism, which inspired him to turn his prison time into somewhat of a positive life experience, he said.

After being pardoned of all charges in September 2015, he and his wife started the Fahmy Foundation, with goal to fight suppression of the press and to advocate from unjust imprisonments around the world. He said he is currently working on passing a protection charter with Amnesty International to ensure greater advocacy for Canadians overseas.

“We need a mechanism to obligate the government to protect our people.” said Fahmy. “Not only journalists are being falsely accused … we see this happen to regular people and recently, with Homa Hoodfar.” Homa Hoodfar is a Montreal academic who has been imprisoned in Iran’s Evin Prison since June.

“I don’t call her a prisoner,” Fahmy said about Hoodfar. “She is a political hostage and Iran wants something from Canada—and we still don’t know what it is.”

Fahmy said he believes there should be a change in the way government deals with these problems, and that it is urgent. “She is sick, and she needs support from everyone,” he said.

Fahmy’s complete journey will be detailed in his upcoming book, “The Marriott Cell: An Epic Journey from Cairo’s Scorpion Prison to Freedom,” which will be released on Nov. 15.

Be sure to check out The Concordian‘s exclusive interview with Fahmy in print and online on Sept. 27.