CAIRO
A journalist of the Qatari news network Al Jazeera, who holds a dual Egyptian-Canadian nationality, has submitted a petition to give up his Egyptian nationality, an Egyptian Foreign Ministry source said Sunday.
The source told The Anadolu Agency that journalist Mohamed Fahmy, who has been jailed in Egypt since December of 2013 on charges of broadcasting false news – along with two other journalists - had submitted the petition in order to be deported to Canada.
He said the journalist's deportation could be done in the light of an Egyptian law allowing the Egyptian President to deport foreign nationals convicted of committing crimes in Egypt to their countries to serve sentences handed them in Egypt.
The petition would be referred to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to opine on it after consulting with the Egyptian cabinet and the Prosecutor-General, the source said.
Fahmy and two other journalists, including Australian journalist Peter Greste, were handed prison sentences averaging between seven and ten years in June of 2014 after being convicted of broadcasting false news in Egypt.
Earlier in the day on Sunday, Greste was deported to Australia upon an order by the Egyptian President who acted in the light of a 2014 law that gave him the right to order the deportation of foreign nationals convicted of committing crimes in Egypt.
A government source told AA earlier that the law could not be applied to Egyptians who hold the nationality of other countries.
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