CAIRO—Mohamed Fahmy, the Canadian journalist on trial in Egypt on terror-related charges, has filed a lawsuit in Canadian court against his employer Al Jazeera for $100 million, accusing the Qatari news network of negligence and breach of contract.

In a case that sparked worldwide condemnation of Egypt’s government, Fahmy was jailed for more than 400 days with his two Al Jazeera English colleagues, Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed and Australian correspondent Peter Greste.

Egyptian prosecutors accused the three of spreading false news harmful to national security and of belonging to or aiding the Muslim Brotherhood, which authorities designated a terrorist group in December 2013, six months after Muslim Brotherhood-aligned president Mohammed Morsi, was overthrown.

In January, an appeals court threw out their convictions — they had been sentenced to between seven and 10 years — and ordered retrials, which are still ongoing.

At a press conference Monday in the Cairo Four Seasons hotel, Fahmy, who has been out on bail since February, accused his employer of taking actions that helped land him in jail.

Fahmy said Al Jazeera acted as “an arm of Qatar’s foreign policy” and “was not only biased towards the Muslim Brotherhood — they were sponsors of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

“This is not journalism, this is propaganda and it is dangerous. Our time in prison is proof of that,” Fahmy said.

He repeated his past accusation that the network translated reports produced by him and his team for the English-language channel and broadcast them on its Arabic language Egyptian affiliate over his objections.

“Egypt put us three journalists on trial instead of punishing the network,” Fahmy said, flanked by his Egyptian and Canadian lawyers. “But I will not be as lenient as Egypt and I am here to announce that I will set the record straight and put Al Jazeera on trial in Canada’s top court.”

Later, in a statement, an Al Jazeera spokesman said: “It’s sad to see Fahmy and his lawyer repeating criticisms of Al Jazeera made by the Egyptian authorities. It’s what his captors want to hear at this stage of the retrial. All governments have news outlets that they don’t like, but they don’t use spurious grounds to put journalists in jail. If Fahmy wants to seek monetary compensation from anyone, it should be from his jailers.”

Fahmy’s Canadian lawyer, Joanna Gislason, announced that Fahmy filed the suit against Al Jazeera on May 5 in the British Columbia Supreme Court. It seeks $100 million in punitive damages and compensation for negligent conduct, negligent misrepresentations and breach of contract.

“The conduct of Al Jazeera resulted in three professional journalists being imprisoned for over 400 days,” Gislason said.

Monday’s press conference focused solely on Al Jazeera. None of those addressing reporters condemned the Egyptian authorities who had imprisoned the three journalists for well over a year.

The speakers were seated in front of a large banner that read, “Journalism is not political activism” — a variation of Al Jazeera’s slogan in support of the three journalists throughout their ordeal of “Journalism is not a crime.”

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Fahmy renounced his Egyptian citizenship in December in the hopes of benefitting from a decree that allows Egyptian authorities to deport foreigners charged or convicted of crimes to their home countries. He retained his Canadian citizenship.

He said if he is sentenced again to prison he hopes to be deported as Peter Grestre was in February. The retrial resumes on June 1.

Sharif Abdel Kouddous is a Cairo-based journalist and a fellow at the Nation Institute.

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