Canadian journalist Mohamed Fadel Fahmy is looking forward to returning to Vancouver, where he lived in the 1990s.

In an interview with the Straight from Cairo, the former Al Jazeera English network bureau chief said he has a job lined up as an adjunct professor at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism. He hopes to start working in September.

But first, Fahmy will have to return to an Egyptian court next Thursday (July 30) along with coaccused Baher Mohamed to hear the verdict in their high-profile retrial on charges of terrorism and spreading false news while working for the Qatari news network.

A third former Al Jazeera journalist, Peter Greste, was deported to Australia earlier this year.

“I don’t want to spend time in prison,” Fahmy said. “If I’m not convicted, I want my name removed from this no-fly list as soon as possible so I can leave Egypt immediately.”

Fahmy says he's not in the clear

During the interview, Fahmy said that he’s fairly certain he won’t be convicted of spreading false news. He based this prediction on the network’s English-language broadcasts, which were presented in court. 

"Our reports were never fabricated," he said.

Fahmy also emphasized that he had no malice toward the Egyptian government in his reporting.

But he acknowledged that he doesn’t believe that he and Mohamed will be completely exonerated. He said this even though he insisted there’s no evidence that they were conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood, which ruled Egypt in 2012 and 2013 before being ousted by the army.

“Here in Egypt, they designated the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists,” Fahmy said. “Their books have been removed from schools and burned.”

At the same time, he said that “it’s not a secret that Qatar, the owner of Al Jazeera, has supported the Muslim Brotherhood politically.”

Canada takes his case seriously

Fahmy repeatedly maintained that he has been caught in a political crossfire between Egypt and Qatar. And he's pleased that the Canadian government has been making greater efforts in recent months to clear the way for him to get out of the country regardless of the verdict.

For example, he said that his lawyer, Amal Clooney, was unable to speak to John Baird when Baird was the foreign affairs minister.

Since Baird’s retirement from politics, however, Clooney has been having regular phone conversations with the Canadian ambassador in Egypt since Greste was deported to Australia.

“The Canadian ambassador and the government in Ottawa started applying more pressure [and] started meeting the prosecutor for the first time face to face,” Fahmy said. “They started engaging the presidency directly in Egypt.”

Fahmy said there are plans in place for a variety of scenarios. That includes if there’s a suspended sentence or if he’s returned to prison, where he spent 412 days of a seven-year sentence before an appeal court ordered a new trial.

He hopes to be deported from Egypt should he be convicted.

Under Egyptian law, he can be shipped out of the country now that he's renounced his Egyptian citizenship.

“I have nothing to do with terrorism,” Fahmy declared. “I’m a journalist. It just happens to be [that] I’m in a terrorism case. I’m not another Omar Khadr.”

Court heard evidence about Al Jazeera licences

Fahmy worked with the Al Jazeera English-language network for three months before he and his two colleagues were taken into custody in December 2013.

“We were shocked when the prosecutor presented a letter to the judge indicating that all Al Jazeera channels’ licences had been revoked before our arrest,” he said. “Now, this puts me in a very bad position in front of the judge. I’ve been trying to explain to them that I didn’t know about this and I should not be judged for this. And the channel should be accountable or responsible for that.”

Compounding his concern is testimony from a national security officer who falsely claimed that Fahmy was working for an Arab-language Al Jazeera station.

"It was inaccurate," Fahmy said. "But the way they see it is...your English-language content was being dubbed into Arabic and broadcast on the local affiliate."

In televised news reports, Fahmy has appeared in court wearing a sling. He said that he suffered a minor injury several days before he was arrested.

He added that it was exacerbated when he was handcuffed to jihadis while being transported and from sleeping on the floor during a month in solitary confinement.

"By the time the authorities were able to give me some attention, it was too late," Fahmy said. "The bone had healed in the wrong position."

He's had one operation and hopes to have another after he returns to Canada.

Lawsuit filed against Qatari network

In the meantime, Fahmy has sued Al Jazeera for $100 million in B.C. Supreme Court for its alleged role in his imprisonment.

He has alleged, among other things, that the network should be held liable for paying antigovernment activists to produce segments on Al Jazeera’s Arab-language channels and for rebroadcasting his English-language reports on the banned Arab-language network.

Fahmy said it makes sense for his civil suit to be heard where there aren’t political and public-opinion influences on the judiciary. Besides, he added, B.C. is where he plans to live, work, and start a new life with his wife.

“I’m not a revolutionary,” Fahmy said. “My cause is my freedom and freedom of expression.”