Relatives of Mohamed Fahmy are calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take a more public role in securing the imprisoned journalist’s freedom.

According to Fahmy’s wife and brother, the Canadian ambassador to Egypt has petitioned Cairoto have Fahmy either pardoned or deported to Canada. News of the request came a day after Fahmy, a Canadian citizen, was convicted by an Egyptian court of spreading false news and other charges and sentenced to three years in prison.

The Foreign Affairs Department would not confirm for the Star that the embassy had filed applications for Fahmy’s release. But Mohamed’s brother, Adel Fahmy, reached in Egypt by phone, said Canadian officials had assured him the documents had been submitted. He said that “diplomatic pressure is essential at this stage” and the applications need a “nudge” from the Canadian government.

“We are getting substantial help from the embassy. We are getting a lot of support back home in Canada,” he said. What’s needed now, he said, is the prime minister’s help. “That’s what we want.”

Fahmy’s wife, Marwa, said she wants Harper “to publicly call for Mohamed’s release, and do everything he can in order to get Mohamed out of here.”

She acknowledged Harper had sent a tweet out on Saturday demanding Fahmy’s “immediate and full release.”

“But still, I need more than a tweet,” she said. “I’m talking to the human side of all officials in the Canadian government to have sympathy with us and to understand what we’re going through. Mohamed, he’s a Canadian citizen. He deserves more from his government.”

She asked Canadians to support the #HarperCallEgypt campaign on social media.

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Harper, who is in the midst of a re-election campaign, has been under pressure from political opponents to intervene directly on Fahmy’s behalf. In a statement released Saturday, NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar called on the prime minister to “take a break from electioneering” to speak directly with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and press for Fahmy’s release.

Liberal foreign affairs critic Marc Garneau told The Canadian Press that Harper should contact el-Sisi and “make it very clear that the relationship between Canada and Egypt, which has been a good one, is in jeopardy if Mr. Fahmy has to go back to jail.”

When asked about demands that Harper take a more active role in Fahmy’s case, a Conservative Party spokesperson referred the Star to the Foreign Affairs Department. In response to the Star’s questions about what the government is doing to free Fahmy, department spokesperson Diana Khaddaj issued a written statement.

“Canadian government officials have raised this case with Egyptian officials at the highest level and will continue to do so,” it said. “Canadian officials will continue to provide consular assistance to Mr. Fahmy.”

Jason Kenney, defence minister in the most recent government, was asked about Fahmy at a campaign event on Sunday. He suggested it would be unwise for Canadian officials to speak openly about their interactions with the Egyptian government.

“It’s easy for an opposition leader to stand up with a megaphone, but sometimes a degree of forceful discretion is required in the management of complex consular cases,” Kenney said.

Saturday’s verdict is the latest twist in a saga that stretches back to December 2013, when Fahmy and two colleagues, Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, were arrested in Cairo while working for Qatar-basednews network Al-Jazeera.

They were accused of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was declared a terrorist group in 2013, and were convicted in June 2014 at a trial that was widely condemned by human rights observers as a fraud. Egypt’s highest appeals court ordered a retrial in January, on the grounds that the original case was based on flawed evidence.

Fahmy was released on bail in February, while Greste was deported to Australia. Baher Mohamed was convicted Saturday along with Fahmy. Greste was convicted in absentia.

The guilty verdict was a shock to Marwa Fahmy, who said the appeals court decision in January had left both her and her husband optimistic about an acquittal. She told the Star she wasn’t even able to say goodbye to him on Saturday, and that officials didn’t tell her where he is being held.

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Marwa said she’s worried about her husband’s health: she has his hepatitis C medication and she isn’t being allowed see him for 30 days. She’s also worried what effect the return to prison will have on his psychological state, after his brief taste of freedom while out on bail.

According to Marwa, “every day in prison for Mohamed is torture for him and for me and for all his family.

“This case really destroyed our lives,” she said. “It’s very hard for me to feel that we have to go through this again.”

With files from Sharif Abdel Kouddous

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