On Thursday’s first session of their retrial, Fahmy was allowed out of the caged dock to address the judge.
“I didn’t ask to drop my (Egyptian) nationality,” he said, his arm in a blue sling from an accident he had suffered before his arrest.
“A security official visited me and asked I drop my citizenship because the state wanted to get this case done with, it had become a nightmare,” Fahmy said before unfurling a large Egyptian flag.
Greste was on the judge’s roll call of defendants at the start of the trial.
“He’s not here sir,” responded a police officer when the judge called out his name.
The three journalists had spend more than a year in jail before an appeals court ordered a retrial.
Egypt’s Court of Cassation ruled in January that the lower court “lacked evidence to support its ruling” in the original verdict.
The three employees of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera English were arrested in December 2013 and charged with spreading false news about Egypt and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.
Their arrests and continued detentions sparked widespread condemnation and calls for their release led by Washington and the United Nations.
– ‘Paying the price’ –
The journalists’ initial trial came against the backdrop of strained ties between Egypt and Qatar, which supported ousted president Mohamed Morsi.
The Islamist leader was toppled by then army chief Sisi in July 2013, before Sisi was himself elected president.
The journalists were among 20 defendants initially tried by the lower court.
Of the rest, 12 were Egyptians found guilty of belonging to a “terrorist organisation”.
Two defendants were acquitted, while the other three — also foreigners — were convicted in absentia.
Sisi passed a law by decree last year allowing foreigners to be deported to their home countries to stand trial or serve out their sentences.
Before the start of the retrial, Omara said she was disappointed that — unlike Greste — Fahmy had not yet benefited from the new law.
“We had assurances from the Canadian government and Egyptian officials that Mohamed was supposed to be out last Tuesday,” she told AFP.
“I quit my job and packed my bags.”
While Fahmy may still be deported, an acquittal is the only hope for Mohamed as he has no other nationality.
His wife said the family is “paying the price for being Egyptian”.
Sisi’s office has said the president will not consider a pardon before the courts have finished their work.
