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editorial

Mohamed Fahmy reacts defiantely after hearing the verdict at a court in Cairo, Egypt on Saturday.Asmaa Waguh/Reuters

Mohamed Fahmy's arrest, detention, trial, conviction, successful appeal and now retrial and conviction on spurious technical charges have exhausted the vocabulary required to condemn the absurdity of Egypt's justice system. All the usual adjectives and nouns have been tried – Kafkaesque, kangaroo court, show trial, laughingstock – without catching the conscience of an Egyptian government that is belligerent toward outside rebuke and brutally repressive of any criticism that occurs inside its borders.

With his new conviction, Mr. Fahmy – a Canadian citizen and working journalist – faces three years in a high-security prison for violating laws that offend everyone who believes in a free press: practising journalism without a government permit; working with unlicensed broadcasting equipment; broadcasting from an unlicensed location (his hotel room); and broadcasting "false news."

In Egypt, anything that doesn't coincide with the government's position is considered "false news." The government recently made it a crime to contradict its official version of any terrorist attack and broadened the definition of terrorism to fit almost every activity that involves open dissent. Since terrorists don't concern themselves with rules in the first place, the new law's real effect will be to silence anyone who tries to protest in a legitimate fashion against government policy, and anyone who tries to report on it.

Mr. Fahmy's fate is part of a repressive crackdown by the Egyptian government that is steadily becoming more brazen. Not even the world's attention on Mr. Fahmy's trials, and those of his Al-Jazeera colleagues Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed, has caused the government to waver. There is apparently no pressure, international or domestic, that can sway Cairo.

The only serious recourse left is for the Canadian government to step up its diplomatic efforts to free Mr. Fahmy. Ottawa has petitioned the Egyptian government for the pardon and deportation of its beleaguered citizen. It should continue to press the issue at every opportunity; Stephen Harper, the Conservative Leader and Prime Minister, should consider calling Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi directly to reiterate the government's demands.

This abhorrent perversion of justice has gone on long enough. Canada must continue pushing to bring Mr. Fahmy home safely, and it must push hard.

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