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Stephen Harper’s political opponents are calling on the prime minister to take time off the campaign trail and concentrate on securing the release of jailed Canadian journalist Mohammed Fahmy.

An Egyptian court sentenced Fahmy to three years in prison on Saturday and the foreign affairs critics for both the New Democrats and the Liberals lashed out at Harper for failing to intervene earlier in the case.

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They both called on him once again to phone Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to personally demand the Al-Jazeera journalist’s release.

“Very concretely, we are asking Stephen Harper to put aside the election campaign for a moment and call President al-Sisi directly and ask him to send Mr. Fahmy home,” NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar told The Canadian Press.