Jailed Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy is looking for the next available flight out of Egypt, a close colleague has told the Toronto Star.

Fahmy and his Al Jazeera colleagues — Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohamed — have been jailed in Egypt for more than a year.

Sue Turton, an Al Jazeera colleague who managed to escape Egypt before her own arrest — and sentenced to 10 years in absentia — has been communicating with Fahmy while he has been imprisoned.

“It does look like it’s really imminent. I know we’ve been saying that for the last 24 hours,” she said.

“Now they’re actually checking what flights are available and what times and via where. It’s no longer a suggestion.”

On Sunday, Greste was released and sources say Fahmy is next.

Turton said Fahmy has expressed some nervousness about leaving jail after being locked away for more than year — especially given the media attention his case has received internationally.

“He’s a little apprehensive about it,” she said. “I think he’s trying to mentally prepare himself and work out what it is he wants to say about it all.”

Turton said Fahmy intends to speak with the press once he lands in Canada.

Fahmy — who held dual citizenship with Canada and Egypt — was allowed to relinquish his Egyptian citizenship on Christmas Day. His fiancé Marwa Omara told The Canadian Press on Monday he made the decision to relinquish his Egyptian citizenship in order to facilitate his release.

Turton said he would never normally have given up his citizenship, but he did it just to get out.

“He’s quite a complex character and these parts to his background, these parts to his family, are very evident in the person that he is. So to have to turn away from Egypt . . . was a tough decision for him,” she said.

When Greste was released, his charges were not dropped, meaning that returning to Egypt could prove difficult, Turton said.

“We’re all convicted,” she said. “Will he go back if that doesn’t change? I would not think so.”

Timeline: Mohamed Fahmy

Fahmy, who has been in hospital in Egypt following an operation on his shoulder, has expressed to Turton that being separated from his fellow captive journalists — his “brothers — has left him feeling lonely.

“They’ve been through such an ordeal together, that being in hospital was a positive thing one way, but obviously being separated for them wasn’t ideal for morale,” she said.

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Turton would not comment on Fahmy’s feelings toward the Canadian government’s response to his captivity, but she expressed disappointment that the government did not get involved sooner.

“They were very slow off the mark,” she said, adding that the response changed recently. “We can’t take a way from the fact that they did get very involved in the last couple of months.”

Canada’s involvement escalated after the Egyptian government ruled that foreigners accused or charged with countries could be deported, Turton said. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told CBC on Monday that Fahmy’s release was “imminent,” but declined to provide any more details.

Amal Clooney, who is representing Fahmy along with Canadian lawyer Lorne Waldman, said that they hope he will be released soon.

“I have been in touch with the Fahmy family and we are all delighted that Peter Greste has been released. As Mr. Fahmy’s counsel we are doing all we can to ensure the same outcome for Mr. Fahmy, who has suffered the same injustice,” Clooney said in a statement to the Star.

Fahmy and his colleagues were arrested in Dec. 2013 and later convicted of terror charges over their coverage of the violent crackdown on Islamist protests following the military overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in July that year.

If Fahmy is released, Baher Mohamed will be the last of the trio of Al Jazeera journalists imprisoned. As an Egyptian citizen, it remains unclear if Mohamed will secure a release like his foreign colleagues, and an Egyptian appeals court has ordered a retrial.

“It’s almost like being an Egyptian is the crime. If the Canadian and the Australian can get out, what are we saying?” Turton said. “It just doesn’t feel right at all, and I think he will feel that injustice quite keenly.”

Mohamed is described as a family man with a five-month-old baby.

“All I’m pushing is that the media don’t forget that because he’s not a big international journalist, he’s a local guy,” she said. “It’s crucial that we keep the campaign and the focus on him . . . so Egypt knows we’re watching their outcome.”

— With files from Star wire services

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