Cairo (CNN) Al Jazeera English journalist Mohamed Fahmy is suing the network for $100 million in punitive and remedial damages for alleged negligence and breach of contract, Fahmy and his attorneys announced Monday.

Fahmy's lawyers, Joanna Gislason and Gary Caroline, filed the lawsuit in the British Columbia Supreme Court in Canada on May 5, they said at a news conference in Cairo.

Fahmy, an Egyptian-Canadian, was held with two other Al Jazeera journalists for more than 400 days in Egypt after they and others were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization -- the Muslim Brotherhood -- threatening Egypt's national security, airing false news and other offenses.

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They were convicted and sentenced to prison terms, but an appeals court in Egypt ordered a retrial, with the journalists released on bail earlier this year.

According to his attorneys, Fahmy accuses the network of "epic negligence" by misinforming him about its legal status in Egypt and airing his reports on its Egyptian channel Jazeera Mubashir Masr, which was banned by an Egyptian court for alleged biased reporting favoring the Muslim Brotherhood. He said Al Jazeera didn't pay for his legal fees in full after he sought a lawyer different from the ones the network had hired. Al Jazeera has denied that claim.

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