Decision delayed on Canadians’ release in Egypt: friend
Posted August 31, 2013 10:52 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Two Canadians being held in Egypt will have to wait a few more days to find out whether they’ll be released.
A friend of Tarek Loubani and John Greyson says the men’s lawyers have met with a Cairo prosecutor and Canadian embassy staff — a meeting that was initially set for Thursday.
But Justin Podur says the prosecutor wants more information before deciding whether to let the pair go, and that could take several days.
Loubani, a doctor from London, Ont., and Greyson, who is a Toronto filmmaker and university professor, were detained Aug. 16 amid deadly riots in the Egyptian capital.
They were in Cairo trying to make their way to Gaza where Loubani was to teach emergency-room medicine and Greyson was considering producing a documentary.
Canadian foreign affairs officials have said it appeared the men were in the wrong place at the wrong time when they were detained.
In an update posted on his website, Podur says that in spite of their situation, “Tarek and John remain in high spirits.”